Budget Truck Rental Reviews

After 5 calls and 7 hours never did I receive a call back. The best solution that they came up with was to cancel my reservation at no charge to me. But if I called and cancelled I would be charged $50 minimum. Now I have a home full of boxes with no truck to move them in. Oh and I was informed that reservations does not reserve you a truck "check the terms and conditions". Horrible company with horrible customer service and a horrible business model. They over reserve trucks in hopes people will cancel.

The Budget desk clerk was angry and said I would not only have to pay for a full tank but a $60 "admin processing" fee. I was mad at both his rude and angry manner so I told him "let's go to the gas station and I'll insert my credit card and you stand for an hr and pump the gas. Then my mom came in and noticed we were arguing and asked the man to have a little understanding at how frustrating his trip was because of this. The clerk yelled at her, told her to get out or he'd call the cops. My son said "Yes, call them." I disputed the excess charge with my card but not sure of the outcome. HINT: if renting from Budget ask to see the pump which is probably on their premise, as it's probably an industrial type that shoots gas in. This could be a scam to get more $$ from consumers.

I explained to the guy in Maryville that my daughter had picked up the truck and that the very elderly man at the Plainfield IN store had not pointed out that the truck had to be back by 8:17 am and that we aren't used to renting moving trucks. The man at Maryville basically told me tough luck and to contact corporate, which I did and was told the same thing. I was charged another 150 for being four hours "late," or late by what they claimed. I was even charged an extra day for the dolly and pads! Stay clear of Budget. I will use Uhaul from now on. Budget is a ripoff and will quote a lower price but get you in the end! I gave a one star for customer service but would have given a 0!

I want an explanation as to why there was no truck for me when I had made a reservation 2 months in advanced. I have never dealt with a company as horrible as you before in my life. And I can tell you that after my experience, myself and everyone I know will not use Budget or Avis. I want an explanation for this and I personally think Budget should be paying my rent since it was because of you my move did not happen.

She never called me back so 2 hours later I call and a guy answers and says "oh she couldn't find any but that I might call another location to see if they had any". I said "haven't you already called them?" He or the girl neither one had called so basically they lied to me. I called customer service for Budget and could hardly understand what they were saying. I don't speak Spanish but got a hint of what they were saying. I was transferred 4 or 5 times and then transferred to a number that just rang and nobody answered.

I called back madder than hell and talked to three more people still barely any English. They said they would get someone to find me a truck and call me within 2 hours. NO CALL BACK. I called again getting madder each time. This time they said evidently the guy couldn't find me a truck. Then they said he would find me a truck and call me the next day. So in the meantime I am out another $100 at this hotel that I could have been using a lot further down the road. I will never use Budget again. They never return their calls. Their reps are rude. Don't have anybody there that speaks English. It's ridiculous!!

At 3 PM I still hadn't heard anything. Called Customer Service again, was told it had been escalated even higher, that they would call me back within 20 minutes to 2 hours. At 6 PM I still hadn't heard anything. Called back, asked to speak to a supervisor. Was put on hold for 10 minutes. Stated that I hadn't heard anything from them in 6 hours and in the meantime had reserved through another company. Then stated if they couldn't get an answer for me on this phone call, I would take my business elsewhere. The supervisor stated that they were sold out of all trucks in my area and that's why nobody had called me back, because they were still working on it. How were they planning to get me a truck if they are completely sold out in the area?

This company overbooks all the time, it would seem. Like others have noted, the supervisor couldn't have cared less about keeping my business and promptly canceled my reservation. If you're moving at the end of a month, long distance, or don't have a lot of flexibility in when you need a truck, don't use this company. Worst customer service I've ever received. Grateful to the local guy who called us with enough time to straighten this mess out with another company. Seems like he's been through this before.

They eventually sent out a mechanic. The mechanic jump started the truck and said there was nothing wrong with the batteries and there was nothing he could do about the straps. He also told me to leave the truck running for about 4 hours to build the batteries up. I ask him why would they be down if the alternator and batteries were good. I told him that I hope I didn't break down on my 8 hour trip and that I had better not lose my car off the dolly. Said there was nothing else he could do. By that time I was upset and tired so decided to wait until later to start out on the move, even though I was not comfortable driving at night pulling a car that might come off the dolly at any time.

Again when I tried to leave, the truck would not start. At 11:47 p.m. the second mechanic finally showed up. He told me he had batteries to replace the ones on the truck. He jump started the truck and told me again there wasn't anything wrong with the batteries or the alternator. I told him there had to be a short somewhere or something to keep draining the batteries. Finally on the second day of my rental I got started on my trip. At one place I stopped for fuel, the truck acted like it wasn't going to start but it finally did. I had to leave the truck running the next two times I had to stop. I had people lined up to help me unload. We got part of the things unloaded but the storage place closes at 9 p.m. so we had to leave with plans on going back to the storage the next morning early as I wouldn't have anyone to help me after 11 a.m. Guess what? The truck would not start again.

My help had to get to work while we were waiting for the 3rd roadside assistance person to show up. I had to get things unloaded so I unloaded it in my niece's yard (no way to haul it to the storage after all). The last mechanic said the batteries had dead cells in them and that I was smart to leave it running when I could. Oh yea, more fuel to pay for. He replaced both batteries. That done, I called customer service and ask how they were going to compensate me for the difference I had to pay for finding my own truck to rent, all the time I lost and the fact I had no help since the scheduling was all messed up because of the three breakdowns. They said they would normally credit me with 12 hours for a breakdown but they would only pay me back for 6 of that 12. I ask why and the CS rep said "that is just our policy."

I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me it wouldn't do any good and that he was the highest up I could talk to. I had (3) breakdowns and lost more than 12 hours because of the timing of the breakdowns. I do not drive at night and especially pulling a car that MIGHT COME OFF the dolly at any time. I feel they should credit me more than a measly $48.00 for the time I lost and the frustration they have put me through. I still have to move the things out of my niece's yard and no one to help me and no way to haul it. I will never use Budget again and I would never recommend them to anyone unless they make this situation right.

The first sign of trouble was when exiting I-5 on a steep off ramp, despite slowing down before the off ramp, the trucks brakes required both feet on the peddle to slow down and stop. I was terrified that it wouldn't stop. When I pulled over to catch my breath, the brakes smelled like a tire fire. Then there was climbing a 6-10% grade when the truck overheated 4 times and it took us TWO hours to go 26 miles. 18 wheeled trucks were passing us like we were going backwards.

I knew if we called customer service, we would be stuck on the side of the road for hours. We decided to keep going. When the truck couldn't make it up the street to our new home, my husband had to drive down the street in reverse until he could turn around, unhitch the trailer, leave it in a parking lot while we drove to the house and unloaded the truck. Then, we made another trip to pick up the car and trailer, took the car home, cleaned up the truck and returned it.

When I tried calling the number on the contract of the drop-off location, they couldn't help me because that number was for the Budget CAR rental. The lady gave me a different number and it too was wrong. We had no way of knowing their hours, if they were open on weekends or if we could even just leave it. And it was 40 miles out of our way. What could we do? So we filled the tank, folded the moving blankets and dropped the truck off. And did I mention this was 4th of July weekend?

Now I am being charged an extra $460 for dropping off the truck after hours and for being 2 days late over a holiday weekend after already paying $580 for a one way rental of a truck that should have never been on the road in the first place. I planned on fighting the extra charges and after reading the other complaints, I'm more determined than ever. The issue is one of people's safety and Budget doesn't seem to care or recognize that this is not a game.

I flew into Minneapolis on July 8th to pick up the truck and trailer from Budget. When I arrived, I noticed that the truck that they had hooked up to the trailer was kind of old-looking and had some rust. I also noticed that there were newer trucks on the lot, which really made me wonder why they would be sending me on a trip that was going to be over 800 miles with a full truck and pulling a 92 Jeep Grand Cherokee on a trailer in such an old truck, when there are obviously newer better trucks. I should have listened to my intuition and asked them to switch trucks, but I figured they were sending me in the best possible truck they had available.

During the check-out process, the sales representative never mentioned a word about a weight limit on the truck. She mentioned the liability insurance option and the damage insurance options, but neglected to mention anything about weight limits. We did a walk around the truck to point out any existing damage so that when the truck was turned in, I wouldn't be charged for existing damage. In the future, I also know to ask for the latest maintenance inspection, mechanics reports, and maintenance logs (I highly doubt they exist but it's worth a try).

When we got to the back of the truck, she opened the rear door and noticed that there were furniture pads still there. She indicated at that point that she had not had a chance to check out this vehicle since it was last returned to their location. Her statement also tells me that if she hadn't checked that vehicle for furniture pads or to see what was left in the back, no one else had checked that vehicle for mechanical issues either. They apparently didn't check the cab either because as I entered I noticed some sort of fried breading on the floorboard from the last renter (gross).

When I started the truck, I noticed that it had over 93,000 miles on the odometer. I reluctantly drove the truck and trailer off of the lot since it seemed to be getting really busy there and I already had one vehicle almost block me in. The lot was pretty tight to navigate a truck with a trailer as it was, so I figured it best to just start my journey. I drove the truck and trailer empty 3.5 hours to my destination in Iowa. During that trip, I noticed that the truck didn't seem to have a lot of power even without a load. I attributed this to the tow option on the transmission and the high mileage of the vehicle. I was just hoping for the best at this point.

On Friday July 10th, we finished packing the truck and loaded the Jeep on the trailer. We left central Iowa headed for Colorado at around 1:30 pm Central time. If you have ever driven west on I-80 through Iowa, then you know that as you approach Council Bluffs it starts to get hilly. We were about 50 miles from the Nebraska border when the truck started to have serious issues. While we were going up one of the long hills, the RPMs spiked to 5000 and blue smoke came out the back of the truck. About a mile later on flat ground, the RPMs spiked up to 4000. That is when I knew I needed to find a place to pull off the road and call Budget. We pulled off at Walnut, Iowa - I believe it was exit 46. I called Budget at 4:17 pm CST.

The person I spoke to from Budget said that they needed to send a technician to diagnose the problem. I received a text from Budget's roadside service at 4:29 pm, giving me a reference number (**) and telling me a vendor would be assigned shortly. After an hour of waiting, I began to get concerned especially since we still had at least 10 hours of driving ahead of us, and it was almost 100 degrees outside with high humidity. I spoke to the gas station attendant and he seemed disgusted with our situation. He stated that those trucks break down all the time in that area and that Budget doesn't care what happens to you at that point. He also stated that he would be surprised if we made it back on the road any earlier than 2 am!

That scenario just didn't seem likely to me. How could a huge company like Budget/Avis give such bad customer service? Still, I started to get nervous since I hadn't heard back from them for an hour, so I called them again to inquire about the ETA of the technician. The Budget representative that I spoke to (I believe his name was Patrick) told me to give them at least another 30 minutes and he was sure they would have someone by then. Sure enough, 20 minutes later, I received another text telling me that the vendor was Hanson Interstate and their ETA was 58 minutes. At this point, it was clear to me that the gas station attendant was more than likely right on the money. We decided that it was probably best if we just got a hotel room so that my 70-year old mother didn't have to sit in a McDonald's all night waiting for this to be resolved.

When the technician from Hanson Interstate arrived (I believe his name was Barry), he inspected the truck and it didnt take him long to determine that it was having transmission issues. He said the fluid smelled burnt and that it was spitting fluid out on the engine. He also said that there was transmission fluid all down the undercarriage and it looked like it had been happening for some time, most likely long before the truck came into our possession (those were his words not mine). He called his contact with Budget's roadside service and gave them his diagnosis. Apparently they asked him to drop the transmission to see if he could do a repair on the spot. He told them that sort of job would take several days and that they needed to get a different Budget moving truck to the location for the customer.

Soon after he finished his call with the Budget roadside services rep, I received a phone call from Amy, apparently the same person he had just spoken to. Amy basically told me the same thing the technician told her. Because I declined the insurance options from Budget, I asked her if there was any liability on my part for the breakdown. She told me that because the truck was having transmission/mechanical issues, there was no liability on my part. She stated that she was going to recommend that Budget sends us a new vehicle along with a team to offload our possessions and reload the new truck. Due to the fact that it was after 7pm at this point, she said that nothing would happen until after 9 am the next morning. Thank goodness we had already gotten the hotel room. At this point it sounded like Budget was going to do the right thing so I didn't push the fact that we needed to make things happen faster.

The next morning I was expecting to receive a call or a text by 9:30 am. When I didn't hear anything by 9:30 am, I called Budget to see what was happening. The person I spoke to told me that they had just received an email regarding my situation 5 minutes ago. This made me nervous because it seemed like things were not happening as fast as they should have. The representative informed me that I would receive a text when they located a vendor with an available truck. About an hour later, I received a text stating vendor is WINGS REPAIR & TOWIN: ETA is 59 min.

About an hour later I spotted a large purple tow truck, the kind you would use to tow a semi, driving around the parking lot. I went out to the parking lot to meet the driver and to let him know I would bring the truck out to him so that he didn't have to maneuver his truck into any tight spaces. At that point I realized that something was not right, but I went to bring the truck out anyway. When I parked the Budget truck in a more accessible space, I asked the tow truck driver to hold off until I had a chance to speak with Budget to see where the new Budget truck was. Even after I asked him very nicely to hold off, he was still lining up his tow truck to take the budget truck, which still had all of our things in it.

At this point, I didn't know what was happening, but I was starting to get upset. No one had ever mentioned to me that they were going to tow this truck with our things inside. I was concerned because I didn't want our load to shift when they elevated the front end to tow it. I didn't want any of my moms things to get broken and I also didn't want everything to shift against the back door, which would prevent us or at least make it more difficult to get that door open. The representative that I spoke to said that they need to tow the vehicle to the scale so that they could get a weight. When I asked them why they needed to get a weight on the truck, I was informed that they believed that the truck was overloaded which was causing the transmission issues. This was the first time anyone had said anything about the truck possibly being overloaded.

I was confused because in my mind, I would think that if Budget thought the truck was overloaded, then they would have sent someone to the location to look in the back of the truck and get pictures of the truck and the load. None of that happened, and it had not even crossed my mind that the truck could have been overloaded. The truck was loaded, but not overloaded. All of the things that were on the truck were normal items that you would see in a move i.e. ; Freezer, office desk, china cabinet, love seat couch, TV, small file cabinet, mattress, box spring, plastic totes, cardboard boxes etc. There was not much more than that on the truck. If Budget had of taken the time to look, they would have realized that.

I was upset at this point because I was fully expecting a Budget truck and a team of people to offload and re-load so that we could continue our trip. Instead they completely changed their position and were trying to make a case to make this all my fault. I asked the representative why they couldn't just send the other truck and the team, offload our things, reload them on the new truck and then drive that truck to the scale to get a weight? He didn't have an answer to that. He just kept saying that we needed to follow the instructions from roadside services, which was to tow the vehicle to the scale to be weighed.

I told him the reasons why I didn't want the truck to be towed. He seemed to understand and asked me if the truck was drivable. I told him it was and he said it would be acceptable for me to drive the truck to the scale and have the tow truck follow me. I informed the tow truck driver of this. He acted like he didn't hear me. He just kept working on getting the truck connected to the tow truck. At this point he had lifted the front end off of the ground and unbeknownst to me, removed the U-joint.

I informed the rep. on the phone what was happening and I asked to speak with a manager; he said he would connect me. I was put on hold for about 40 minutes. When someone answered the line, I asked if they were a manager or a supervisor. They said no, they were with Customer Service and that they couldn't help me with my current issue. I would need to speak with someone with Budget roadside services. I asked if they could connect me with a manager with roadside services. Again it took at least 30 minutes for someone to answer the phone. The line just rang and rang. When it was finally answered, the gentleman asked me what the reference number was. I told him reference #**. He asked me again, I told him again. He asked me a third time, I told him again, this time very slowly. He told me he couldn't find this reference number. Meanwhile it is 100 degrees and 100% humidity and I had been standing in the sun for over an hour.

Needless to say, I was livid. I asked him if he was a supervisor and he said he was. I explained what was happening and didn't get a response. I asked if he was still there - silence. I said, "hello, is anyone there?" At that point he said he was there and that he was listening. This was very frustrating since it didn't seem like he was being responsive. I asked his name and where he was located. I cant remember his first name, but he said his last name was ** and that he was in Guadalajara, Mexico. It didn't surprise me that someone in Guadalajara, Mexico didn't really care about my situation. He ultimately told me there was nothing he could do and that we had to follow the instructions from the roadside services team and have the truck towed and weighed.

During this conversation and a couple prior, I had mentioned that we had a freezer full of meat on the truck and that we needed to expedite this process so that our things didn't melt and ruin. No one really seemed to be concerned with any of our personal belongings, or that we were stuck partway through our journey with a broken down truck in the blazing heat with my 70-year old mother.

At that point I told the tow truck driver to go ahead and tow the Budget truck to the scale and that we were going to follow him. On the way to the scale, I called Budget again to let them know what was happening. The lady I got on the phone was very sympathetic (I believe her name was Angele). She stayed on the phone with me for about an hour. I asked her to walk me through what we could expect from this point on. On the way to the scale, we witnessed the tow truck driver recklessly change lanes and almost hit another car with the Budget truck he was towing that had all of our things in it.

I expressed my concern to Angele about this over the phone. I also informed her that the tow truck driver was not a very pleasant character. What I didn't express to her is that I felt like he was a racist and was ignoring me because of my skin color. At one point I asked him if he ever had issues dealing with Budget. He responded that he didn't think I was going to have any luck because they were just going to connect me with someone in a different country who didn't know ** and didn't give a **. Turns out he was right, but at the time it seemed kind of harsh and slightly racist.

When we arrived at the location of the scale, the tow truck driver parked the tow truck with the Budget truck in tow and went inside. I went inside as well to see what was going on. He seemed annoyed that I was following him and he was doing his best to avoid me or lose me. It took almost another hour before they actually moved the truck to weigh it. I was on the phone with Budget or waiting for Budget to answer during most of this time. I was asking them what the weight of the empty truck was and no one could answer that question. The only question they were able answer was what the maximum load weight was for that truck. They informed me that the maximum load weight for that vehicle was 3,400 lbs. They didn't tell me the max. weight for the truck until after they had received the weight from the scale.

During no time when I was in possession of that vehicle did I see anything that stated the maximum load weight or the maximum weight of the vehicle. No one ever mentioned to me that we needed to stay beneath a certain weight until they came with a tow truck. When the truck was being weighed, it was still attached to the tow truck. I seriously doubt that anyone could get an accurate weight of that truck while it was still attached to the tow truck. The weight the scale read was 11,800 although when I asked to see the ticket, they would not show me or give me a copy.

After they received the weight from the scale, Budget then told me that the maximum weight of the truck was 11,500 lbs and that the truck was 300 lbs overweight. They then told me that they were not going to help me any further and that I needed to find another tuck on my own and that I had better do it fast because most places were getting ready to close for the day. She then hung up the phone on me. I immediately got on the phone to find a new truck. I found one about an hour away in Omaha, NB from Penske for $1500. We got the same size truck (16ft) and a trailer to pull the Jeep. We drove the empty truck back to the truck stop where Budget truck was being held.

The tow truck driver took the Budget truck with our belongings on it and parked it behind their building in the most inconvenient location possible. The ground was all gravel, dirt, and mud. I asked a different employee there if they could move the Budget truck back to the pavement so that we didnt have to set our belongings in the dirt and mud. He informed me that the U-joint had been removed so the truck couldnt be driven. He then told me that it would cost us $150 dollars to hook it up to a tow truck to move it. After pleading with this person, he agreed that he would get someone to push the truck with a Bobcat to a better location.

It took my sister and I two and a half hours to off-load and re-load. The thing that caught my eye as soon as we opened the back of the Penske was a sign that said the maximum load weight for that vehicle was 4500 lbs - a full 1100 lbs more than the Budget truck. I took pictures of the fully-loaded Budget truck - the tires, the odometer, and the truck - after we had emptied it. I also took pictures of the stickers just inside the driver-side door which state the manufacturers GVWR.

To my surprise, the GVWR of that vehicle was actually 12,500 lbs, not 11,500 lbs. - a full 1000 lbs more than what was stated to me by Budget. According to those numbers, we were under weight by 700 lbs. The gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), or gross vehicle mass (GVM) is the maximum operating weight/mass of a vehicle as specified by the manufacturer, including the vehicle's chassis, body, engine, engine fluids, fuel, accessories, driver, passengers and cargo but excluding that of any trailers.

We finished loading the Penske truck around 8:30pm and drove through the night to get to our Colorado destination. We didn't have any issues with the Penske truck. It drove just as it was supposed to and didn't have any mechanical issues. Moral of this true story is don't ever rent anything from Budget/Avis! They have the worst customer service in the business. They do not take care of their vehicles and try to place blame on the consumer when their vehicles breakdown. This was by far the worst rental experience I have ever had to deal with. I wouldn't wish this kind of treatment to anyone except the ones who treated me like this. I hope Penske puts them out of business for good.

Fast forward to end of June we received a letter in the mail saying that there is a damage claim against my husband and they have sent us letters regarding the claim (they didn't). I have called in many times. Then today the persons who is in charge of my claim line was disconnected. I then was bounced from 11 different people and his supervisor is out of town. I thought it was a great deal. Hopefully this will save some of you from going through this mess.

Then he waited until June 11 -- one day before the move -- to inform me no truck would be available, leaving me hanging AND paying a substantial premium to get a last minute rental at Ryder. Further, Redline/Budget was unwilling to take any responsibility for the financial damage they caused my family. My experience says STAY AWAY!!

I call them to find out what was going on. That's when I found out that they would be sending another truck and movers. The truck arrived at 2:30-3 pm and the movers 4:30 pm. I still returned the truck on the 8 of July. When I called to see what I would be compensated for my delay and time, they told me $45 for the 9 hours. Every time I asked for their corporate number, we get disconnected. I will never use this company again.

Just under 6 weeks later, we received a letter in the mail from Budget stating that we were being charged $1024 to repair the damages to the front of the truck. Included were pictures of the exact same front end damage that we saw when we rented the truck, reported to the employee, and were told it was noted on the damage report. We laughed it off at first because we knew the damage had already been there. Now, since this was almost 6 weeks after we rented the truck and we had just moved everything we owned into a new house and spent 6 weeks unpacking, we were unable to locate our copy of the damage report to verify that the damage was listed on the report.

I then called the pickup location to request their copy, still not concerned in any way because we knew that the damage had been there and that it was noted on the report. When I received a faxed copy of the damage report, only the scratches were indicated on the box truck, the front end damage was not listed. We spent the next week trying to get the woman from the letter on the phone, and when we finally did, my husband explained the entire situation to her upon which she replied that we were responsible for the damages and that there were instructions included in the packet they sent on how to dispute the claim. There were no such instructions in the paperwork. I then emailed the same woman asking her for instructions on disputing the claim and did not receive a response for 10 days, and even then she only asked for the claim number associated.

I responded immediately with the claim number and never heard from her. In the next week or so, we received another letter from Budget complaining that we hadn't paid the bill yet. This letter was from a different person. So my husband thought he'd give that guy a try, called him and explained again every detail, to which the response from the gentleman was a blind "you signed the contract, you have to pay". A time later, I sent an email through the Budget site asking for help. I stated the details of the situation from beginning to end and received a prompt reply stating to call a number where they could help. I called and a woman picked up without stating her name. I explained, again, the entire situation and pleaded with her to help because it was ridiculous that we were to be held responsible for over $1000 in damages that were not caused by us.

I went on to tell her about how the original woman from the letter had stated to my husband that there was instructions on disputing the claim in the first packet that was sent. It was only then that the woman identified herself as the same woman from the letter and stated that my husband was a liar. (really professional!!) I then questioned her why she felt it was professional to ignore my email and she stated that she was just about to get back to me... a month after it was sent. I flipped out on her and she hung up on me.

I then sent an email to the gentleman from the second letter, again reiterating all of the details from pickup to drop-off and the ridiculously terrible customer service we had received trying to straighten everything out. I stated that we were disputing the claim, and that we would absolutely not be paying the bill until a judge declared that we had to, that we did not damage that vehicle and that we would not be raped of $1000 because their employee was an idiot, that their employee materially, fraudulently and negligently misrepresented the contract that we signed and that therefore, they could not hold us to it. I also declared that we were in the process of obtaining quotes from other repair companies in the case that a judge does decide we need to pay, that their repair price was highly inflated. I received an email back stating basically to go screw myself, that they were sending us to collections if we didn't pay in full immediately.

I then returned to the Budget site to try to get some help from customer service again. I explained the situation, the lack of any assistance whatsoever and pleaded again for someone to call me, and that it better not be one of the two individuals that we had already been dealing with. I never received a response. I will let my credit plummet to the depths before I pay this claim. I am so disgusted by the customer service this company provides. To have no possible recourse against this type of claim is completely insane and unethical. They have two people sitting there blindly stating 'pay the bill' and 'you signed the contract' with no care whatsoever to what actually happened. I've never been treated so poorly by customer service before in my life, and I've had Comcast for over 10 years! If these people expect any money out of me, they better be prepared to sue my estate because they will get that money over my dead body!!!

You call that Customer Service? Today, I try to speak to customer service about that promised refund, and I get told that the best they can do is refund 10% of the pre-tax amount, i.e. $2.50! I had movers scheduled to help move things. My entire move day was put on a hectic schedule, exactly what I didn't want for this day. (Meanwhile, my wife was within two weeks of her due date, and I didn't want her to have to deal with this kind of strain and stress.) I asked to speak to a manager. I was put on hold for over 1/2 hour. What a nightmare. So, if you hear my story, needless to say, I would advise against using Budget. ;)

9 AM of pickup day on 7/1, I get a phone call from the local office stating that they had no truck for me and they couldn't source another one. I was offered a smaller truck, but I had planned with my movers to do all my moving in one day. If I had them help multiple times, it would've cost me more money that I literally did not have. So I got on the phone with corporate. We spent 9 hours on the phone with them on 7/1 trying to locate a truck. We were supposed to get a call from an "Inventory Manager" first at 11, then again at 1, 3, etc, etc. that never happened. No one reached out to us. Supervisors were COMPLETELY unwilling to help and just stated we had to keep waiting for them to call. They never did. At around 6 that night, we finally reached back out to the local office and asked for the 16 ft truck.

During this time, I was Facebooking with their social media team and tweeting them as well. Still no assistance from Budget, no one would take ownership of the situation, nothing. I also tried to get a U-Haul or Penske or any other local truck rental companies, but everyone was sold out due to the long weekend/first of the month. The nearest U-Haul was over 100 miles away and I just couldn't afford the time it would take to go get it. It turns out that the location we rented from doesn't even offer 24 ft trucks. They hadn't offered them in over a month yet they still took reservations for them. A supervisor we spoke with named Nathan said that we would get 50% off of our rental, plus 10 free miles+ .76 every mile thereafter. That brought the total of our rental for relatively $115. With that being satisfactory, I went to pick up the truck the next day.

Upon renting the truck, I was charged $345, including the refundable $150 deposit. I agreed to this because I was told that corporate had to make the adjustment. I was beyond frustrated at this point and just had to get the move started or we were going to have to pay extra to my old landlord. When we returned the truck on 7/4 at 2 pm (two hours early, mind you) they were closed. Understandable due to the holiday. I filled out the paperwork appropriately, noting that they had NOT filled out the beginning mileage, took pictures of the rental contract and keys being returned, just in case further shenanigans occurred. Two hours later, I was emailed saying the truck was overdue. We called and told them we had returned it two hours early and that simply wasn't true. They agreed and advised us to disregard.

I noticed this morning (7/5) that I had forgotten a moving blanket and called the local office to return it. He said to bring it on in, no problem. The sign on the night drop where I left my keys said to call the store during business hours to get the deposit returned. When I asked the local man about it, he said that was only for cash renters and that I would have to contact Corporate. I said that's fine and left.

Calling corporate and to get them to fix the discount that they promised, they IMMEDIATELY said absolutely not, that they weren't going to give it to us. We told them what Nathan and Blanca (another customer service rep in Guadalajara, like Nathan) had said about the discount, and they said absolutely not and they couldn't confirm that. We asked them to pull the calls to prove what we had said. They said they didn't have them and "there must have been a glitch to prevent them from being recorded." Christopher (the supervisor that we spoke with today) said that he could fix the issue and give us the discount and return our deposit but that he didn't want to. He would not specify a reason why.

Since 7/1, we have spent 19 hours on the phone with them in one way or another. I finally had to contest the charges with my bank because this is a classic example of bait and switch. They made my move an absolute nightmare. I would not ever, EVER recommend using Budget to anyone, and I almost always rented cars from them on vacation and business trips. Not ever again.

I am told by not one but two phone agents that it is my responsibility to check the hours of my return location when I book online. I am further told that I should have received an email outlining the hours of operation, and that it's also on my contract. (I take a look at my contract and find that the hours are indeed printed in illegibility small font on the fold between two pages. Even if I looked there, it would be impossible to decipher). I mention that I was never told by the agent when I picked up the truck and I'm given some nonsense answer about booking online and how it's my fault.

I then ask if there's an alternate location where I can drop off the truck, and I'm told that there will be a drop fee if I do so. I ask again if there are nearby locations, and they tell me that they can't help me with that. Finally, after pleading, I get the guy on the phone to do two seconds worth of actual work and look up a location for me that is open on Sundays. I hang up, and call ** at the Colton, CA location.

** ends up being a lifesaver. I tell him the situation, and he immediately tells me it's no problem, I can bring it to his location instead and there won't be any fees since I'm leaving the truck in the same general area. Thank you, **! To the rest of Budget: figure out how to fix your website and don't treat customers like criminals because they had the audacity to use modern technology.

However I was given a series of excuses about the overcharges, despite information about the deposit only being charged to cash or debit card users on the Budget website. I used a credit card. I have placed over a dozen calls to customer service and Budget's corporate office in NJ and have received minimal accountability and a less than acceptable offer of a $30-40 credit. Would certainly not recommend.

When she went to pick it up they said they didn't have available. I called customer service and they put me on a waiting list. This is terrible way to do business. People are depending on them to have the truck. I am on a list and they have no idea when it will be available. This puts me in a bind as I have no other options. The expense of going back and forth from Pueblo to Denver is adding up. Please think hard before you do business with Budget.

When we returned to have the tow dolly hooked up there was no assistance. The staff was milling around and we could not get anyone to help us. It was in Las Vegas and the middle of the day and 110 degrees. We waited some 45 minutes before anyone helped us and finally someone came out and said he would be hooking it up. I said "will you be driving the car on to the dolly and hooking up the chains underneath the car and ratcheting the straps down on the tires?" He stated "Oh no. Our insurance does not cover this." I told him that I was 72 years old and my room mate is 67 and disabled because of having his neck fused and his lower spine. That did not seem to matter to Budget. They refused to do that and even insisted that we drive it off the property on to the street where we were forced to crawl around under the equipment trying to get it hooked up.

The pavement was so hot that I had to find a plastic bag which contained dirty clothes to kneel on or lie on whenever that was called for. One of the mechanics there came out and gave us instructions but it was obvious that he didn't really know what he was doing. Had we not been on such a tight schedule I would have cancelled the whole transaction right there and gone to U-Haul but again we were on a tight schedule. We were late leaving but because of the truck being too small and the inconvenience of having to rent a trailer elsewhere, we wasted a whole day. The trip is no more than a 5 and a half hour drive by car but we were not finished loading until 11:30 PM on the 16th.

We traveled all day on the 17th and the truck was due to be turned in on the morning of the 18th by 10:00 AM. One of the reasons the trip took so long was when we stopped for gas the truck would not start again on 3 or 4 occasions. We pressed on because quite frankly I did not want to call Roadside Assistance because A. you don't ever get anyone and B. they take forever to respond and I had to be back at work on the morning of the 18th. Because of the delay with the truck not starting on several occasions, we were late getting in. Consequently the rental place was not open when we got there.

Once again we were forced to lay on the ground, this time in the dirt and gravel and try to figure out how to get the car off of the dolly. I have a large gash in the back of my elbow from this experience and even when we got the car off, we could not get it unhooked from the truck so we could at least leave the tow dolly there. I had to go to work in the morning and needed my car. I ended up calling a tow truck company and he was kind enough to come out and help us get the tow dolly unhooked. The reason, by the way was that the bar above the hitch had been bent severely and had to be straightened before the hitch would come off the ball. That made us too late to get to the storage and ended up costing us an extra day.

The following day I called the manager of the rental place to let him know and he said that they would work with me on the extra day. Meanwhile I had made arrangements with a couple of movers to come over after I got off work to help with the unloading and I assured the manager that I would have it back gassed up with the pads and the utility dolly that evening. After the truck was unloaded I ask one of the movers to drive the truck up to get gas and then to meet me at the Budget yard afterward. When he got in the truck to start it, it would not start. I tried, my room mate tried, and everyone there tried. It would not start! We left it and went to dinner because at that point we were exhausted.

During dinner I tried to call Roadside Assistance and was on hold at some point for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Even when I would almost get an answer, the call would loop back to the beginning and I would have to start again. I finally gave up and went home. On the following morning I again tried to reach the rental office and got someone who claimed he was the manager, although he was not the man I had spoken to the day before. He insisted that this was my problem and that I should have called someone to come and fix it and or a tow truck to have it towed. He was very abusive and I finally just hung up. I was finally able to get someone out after finally reaching Roadside Assistance.

The entire day at work I was on the phone with all of this and unable to get my work done. I sent my room mate down with the contract and everything and the "Mgr" refused to take it because he said he had to have everything. After work I met my room mate there and we took the truck over and gassed it up and brought it back and dropped the keys and the contract through the door slot. On Friday I had called my credit card company and put a block on the card so he could not charge the additional fees until I had had a chance to dispute the entire transaction.

Apparently he had anticipated this, partly because I had left him a note telling him I would be disputing any charges and I think he had already computed the charges on Friday and submitted them even though legally he could not do that because he didn't have all the equipment back yet. I will never rent anything from Budget again and I will warn every one I know to beware of this company. They have equipment that is old and not well maintained. Their customer service is non-existent and their staff is poorly trained.

Moving my family on my own is stressful enough, so I tell her I can't wait 2 hours because everyone will be closed if I don't get a truck. So she tells me there is nothing she can do nor help in any way for the stress brought upon me. She cannot guarantee my truck or compensate in any way if no truck is available. Poor customer service in my opinion. My family is depending on this truck! And I thought a well known company could be trusted as well. I'm upset and tell her to cancel it all, not a skipped beat she says "ok I'll cancel everything for you". At this point I'm shocked no effort whatsoever to keep a paying customer. Manager gets on the phone says "sorry if you can't wait talk to this person. He is a branch manager. He will get you a truck asap". Guy gets on, but to my surprise he is NOT a manager and tells me he cant give me an answer until tomorrow morning when everyone opens up whether or not I'll have a truck...

Says if I can't wait or don't like it, to just cancel... Wow I'm once again SHOCKED. Yet another inconsiderate representative of this well known "respectable" company. I told him that VB blvd location has trucks available But he tells me he cannot just call and get me a truck but that I would have to wait until the next day to try and see if he could get me one because everyone in the office is gone for the day. He said if he could get me a truck it might be bigger but that I would have to pay the difference. I asked to speak with a super AGAIN. I get the old let it ring until the customer gets tired and hangs up. Which after a 3-4 minutes of ringing in my ear while I wait for a manager again, I did. I tried call VB blvd location myself and S plaza trail location but they were closed at 618 when I called.

So I am completely stressed out and have no idea how I'm going to move my house now, depending on Budget to move my family and getting treated like a dog by your service reps. I call back to cancel and got a very nice man named **. I have a guys name and employee number that was very rude and told me just to cancel if you would like to pull the tapes and listen. I will never depend on this company again not will I suggest this company to anyone I know. Call me email me. Whatever you would like. I do not want this happening to anyone else.

When we asked how we were supposed to unpack the 24' truck and repack the other one and still make our deadline. They said they could TRY to see if they could get us some help. UMMMM... no way we were going to stop on a maybe and be delayed and stuck so we just left in the morning. Before leaving we checked the windshield wiper fluid level... it was empty. We had to buy a gallon of windshield wiper fluid to put in their truck. Thank goodness we took out the insurance. Then on the way to Louisiana, in South Carolina, the A/C went out. It was 94 degrees outside and his air conditioning went out! I called the customer service again and they wanted to again switch out the truck but once again couldn't promise they had one, or could get us help to unload and load.

What the heck is wrong with this company? We told them we would be staying in Tuscaloosa, AL and to let us know if they could get a mechanic there. They called us and 3 miles from our hotel we could bring their truck in to get the A/C fixed. We rode in at 8 p.m. to the TA off exit 77 and were told that they were given a notice we would be coming but he is busy and it would be 2 to 3 hours before they could get to the truck. 1 hour to look at it and diagnose the problem and IF he could fix it another 1 to 2 hours. Then he told us that if he didn't get the proper paperwork in by the time it was fixed, we would have to pay for the repairs.

Well... so far Budget Rental Trucks hasn't done anything right or on time and couldn't promise anything to workout so we were not going to risk being stuck in AL with having to pay for the repairs. This has made me so mad and my poor boyfriend having to drive in 94 to 96 degree weather. The cabin was 114 degrees with the windows down. When we finally got to LA, my boyfriend also told me the cylinders in the ignition are so loose. It is very difficult to start the vehicle so he would have to leave the keys in the ignition when we were taking our breaks to eat and cool off. Plus the steering wheel is not centered so where his hands should have been resting comfortably, they were way off position.

When I finally got the truck turned in and all the problems listed the customer service apologized and told me they only give 20% discount for problems. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That was a deadly trip, the most stressful and miserable transaction with any rental company ever. I told them I was not accepting that and I would rather get a lawyer to sue them. BEWARE of this company, they don't care about anything but the money in their pocket! They should be investigated and fined for their poor policies and transactions.

Two days later I called customer service to see if I could get the price I was quoted online and the person shuffled me through the process without listening or caring what I was saying. The rate she told me was $100 more and she treated me as though I was requesting some kind of special treatment to ask for the original rate I was quoted. There's a lot more to this story but I'll spare you. All I can say is I am never going to do business with them. I'm truly sorry for anyone who ever has a problem to resolve with them b/c their 'customer service' is a brick wall.

I've been paying for meals and hotels out of pocket, and we are two days behind schedule. Not only has my husband been on the phone with this company nonstop, but he had to find the shop, show them how to use their own computer, pick up the new truck, and guide the customer service of this company step by step of what we needed to happen. I want a full refund and expenses paid, but they are not giving us any information. This is one of the biggest events in our life, carefully planned out, and now I'm just upset and frustrated. I'm not using this company ever again. They are not even remorseful, polite, or attempting to do right by us.

Here I sit, a few days later. We've unpacked the truck, and are shocked at the damages, and the amount of items missing from the truck. A lawn mower completely taken apart, furniture ruined from fluids leaking everywhere, wedding gift furniture from my grandma scratched beyond repair, and the first painting/gift I ever gave to my husband has scratches all over it. I can't sit on my couch without the horrendous smell. I cry seeing the furniture my ailing grandmother bought me as a wedding gift in shambles. I've yet to check my computer with all of my photos from my son's baby years, which I would truly never forgive them for should they be ruined.

My son's crib, doubt it will be usable for the baby I'm currently pregnant with. I'm disheartened by the lack of empathy from this company. I've paid for three nights in hotels (needing 2 rooms) and have yet to be guaranteed any form of reimbursement. And better yet, they still wanted the truck back on the original turn in date at full price, even with leaving me stranded in Nevada for two days. One of those days, I was stranded in a tow yard with my son, and animals all confined to my sedan as well as myself, which I'm pregnant so I would have appreciated an air conditioned place to at least wait. What if this was their mom, wife, or daughter? Is this how they would want the situation to be handled? I doubt it. This should serve as a warning to others, and a prompt for change within Budget Rental company.

It's raining. I have guys coming to help load the truck, so I go ahead and get the truck. The change oil light is on. Call Budget and was told, "It's normal. Don't worry about it." Get to our destination and call Budget as we will not be able to turn it in on designated day. Told it would be $85 a day. Return truck and get charged another $700 as they charge from the time you rent the truck, not the day. So instead of 2 days, we were charged 4 days (something they don't tell you). Then there were other charges that I was not told about that were added to the account.

When we questioned these charges the guy stated that it's Budget's system and he could not change any of these charges. (I understand business policy but I also know that you can override a system. I also know that discounts can be added/given to help a customer, to give customer service and help keep the customer happy to where they will use your business again, where they will tell their friends to use your business.)

When I went to pay with another credit card they wouldn't accept it as their system would not allow it. Told them there was not enough money on that card. They ran the card and it was declined (I told them there was no money on it). So I was not charged anymore. I had to call my bank and make a payment on the card and then have them authorize this transaction as it takes up to 24 hrs to post. I will NEVER use BUDGET for anything. U-Haul may be a little more expensive but their customer service is awesome. They rent their equipment by the day, not the hour of the day, and they work with you.

Takeaway #1 - Never use the Cincy Glenway Ave. location again. I called Customer Service & finally speak to a rep. after 15 min of the automated Budget broken record phone system. They tell me they will look for a truck & get back to me within 2 hrs. I can't wait 2 hrs, so I call around & find a truck 1 hr north in Dayton. Drive to Dayton, get truck & drive back to Cincy. The rep. in Dayton was very helpful - he had to create a new reservation because Budget's system was so slow in transferring my original reservation. The Dayton Budget location looks very reputable in comparison to most.

We pack up in Cincy & start for Atlanta 3 hrs late. 20 miles south of Cincy the AC quits in the (Ford) truck with only 7,400 miles. I return the truck 2 days early & inform the attendant about the AC. He tells me to call Customer Service for compensation. After 3 tries, Customer Service gives me a 10% discount ($55) for my troubles! I guess I feel lucky (compared to some of the horror stories listed here), that they didn't charge me for the AC issue! Final takeaway: Always call the pick up location the day before to confirm the truck.

A Ryder truck same length towing a vehicle blew by us! We had to add diesel additives with every stop to keep the truck running! Owner called once he knew I was escalating, couldn't help... too late. He said roadside service only choice - BTW... you need to take into a certified facility for that and lose any road time - in our case, had to be on the road non-stop. I now understand UHAUL and Penske run a good fleet with great customer service - too late for us but hopefully not for you. We are returning to Medford this month for another truck and believe me - NO BUDGET!

A month after completing the move I received a bill for $1136 for the trailer tire. I called the number on the invoice to dispute the claim, as I had not been involved in any accident. The lady on the phone told me I had no proof that I had not been in an accident and they would be sending me to collections. Budget delayed my move by two days and then charged me an extra 40%. I didn't move because I hit the lottery! Not sure how to dispute this or with who?

When I called Budget later that week to see if they would be willing to reimburse me for the additional cost, they told me that they will not do anything because they do not guarantee any of their truck rentals. Any company can take a reservation, it's the holding of the reservation that is crucial. Thank god for Uhaul otherwise I don't know what I would have done. I will never make the mistake again and rent from Budget and I would advise anyone that if they need a truck on a specific day, then save yourself some aggravation and rent from a real company like Uhaul.

Monday morning I tried to call the alternate location several times. NO ANSWER! I called the CUSTOMER SUPPORT # (they are anything but 'customer supportive')... Budget would consider renaming this department - their CUSTOMER UN-FRIENDLY SUPPORT or perhaps - CUSTOMER 'PASS THE BUCK' SUPPORT. NO help - after asking to speak to a manager on 2 different calls - I sat on hold for 4 minutes and 22 minutes respectively. Finally a manager named **, stationed in Guadalajara, Mexico responded. ** really tried but was not able to help out directly although he did send out an 'Urgent' request to the Territory Manager (**) who never responded and to their Inventory Team.

** from the Virginia Region Inventory Team did respond. ** mentioned that the 'car carrier' that I was told was reserved for me in Kenosha - was not in Kenosha and in fact was currently under contract no where near Kensoha, WI. ** was tried his best but given the situation - but was not successful in solving my immediate problem. He did refer me to the local Inventory Manager named ** who mentioned that he would send ** an email asking that he address this issue first thing Tuesday morning.

Originally, on Sunday while chatting with ** at the Libertyville, IL Budget office I had the opportunity to chat with ** who was identified as being part of local Inventory Management Team. ** personally told me that he had reserved trailer #41081 (which is a 4 wheeled - car carrier) for me and that it was **'s fault that the trailer I had reserved was not present. He did not mention that ** was only told the previous day, that she was contacted AFTER hours and that she did not have a driver to pick up the trailer (because she was closed on all staff were gone for the day). He did not mention that she could not have picked up the car carrier from Kenosha because they were closed on Saturday (and Sunday).

When I pressed ** to help me resolve this issue created by BUDGET... HE HUNG UP ON ME!!! Hindsight being what it is it becomes apparent that ** told me a BOLD FACE LIE before he hung up on me. HE also told this BOLD FACE LIE to ** as his local Dealer. BTW - ** was the person that confirmed that the Kenosha was open on Monday and I could pick up the trailer there if I so chose... another BOLD FACE LIE.

Conclusion... ** is a BOLD FACE LIAR!!! I'm confident that ** has never heard the phrase 'detrimental reliance' but he and Budget should go to school on this term to find out more about this legal term (basically it's when a party "reasonably relies on the promise of another party, and because of this reliance is injured or damaged"). At this point my plan to leave very early Monday morning have been shattered and need to be re-planned. The crux of the situation is that I needed a trailer to transport a vehicle from IL to FL. I did not have a vehicle to pull the trailer so I decided to rent a truck to do the job and take some personal items down at the same time (kill two birds with one stone).

Bottom line... NO TRAILER... DON'T NEED THE TRUCK - and it totally turned my plans upside down as I have a time sensitive matter to deal with in Florida (closing on a house and interviewing service providers for home maintenance)!

So I reluctantly made the deposit with a credit card, and made explicit instructions to pay cash. I was told it would be fine and that my card would not be charged. I dropped my truck off early the same day as rented, dropped the key in the box and showed up as agreed the next morning to settle in cash. Only to be told my card had been charged and I was given a receipt for double what I should have been charged. The worst part is that the rep literally told me there was nothing he could do and refused to refund my money telling me he would have to make some calls in the morning.

This location was so unscrupulous. I literally felt like they should have been arrested. I walked to my car, called the budget 800 number and fortunately the issued refused immediately, even though it takes a week and now I have to wait to see if I ever get my money back and will probably have to close my account to ensure thieves don't somehow "screw up" and accidentally charge me again in the future. I am so shocked this man at the counter literally lied to me and tried to keep my money. I don't know what to think. How is it he could not issue a refund and I was able to walk outside contact corporate and do it in thirty minutes? 6517 n. Lincoln location in chicago should be investigated to ensure this is not happening to others.

We had to use a makeshift ramp to unload our stuff, not fun and required getting extra help. Budget customer service couldn't have cared less. Still expected me to pay. I disputed credit card charges with my bank. Budget responded saying rude sarcastic comments about me and refused refund. Bank reversed charges during dispute and then Budget turned me to collections. Didn't even finish the dispute process. They can KMA. I will not pay a dime and willing to risk my 839 credit score to stand my ground. More than happy to see them in court. Worst company ever. Do yourself a favor and stay clear. Incredible business model, no apologies from any of the 5 different people I talked to and then to be rude on top of it. From reading all the other reviews sounds like it's a nationwide policy to rent unsafe vehicles, screw everyone over and sit back and smile about it.

And now for the truck ... As it was a one way rental to Denver it seems like they were provided with the worst truck available - something to get rid of (I can only assume, read on). The cab was filthy, really filthy. The strut holding the center seat was broken. The "Check Engine" light was on, as was the "Low Air Pressure" light.. The two unsuspecting, and not very happy, ladies were sent on their way. Just so you know - FRONT STREET BUDGET, Kansas City, MO and the vehicle number **. Next time PENSKE.

One hour up the road it's shaking bad. We call roadside assist. 3 hours later repair truck comes. We have bad pin heads and need an alignment and our front tire has a nail in it and is coming apart. We go to a hotel, it's late. Day three - A new truck is delivered. FILTHY and the dash falling off. We test drive it. SHAKES AND PULLS TO THE RIGHT. Roadside assist comes. Bad tie rods. Needs alignment. We call customer service and are told we are on our own go rent another truck ELSEWHERE!!! 2 hours on the phone, they tell us to go to a service place in the morning at 8 am sharp. We are there. Shop not open... 845 mechanic pulls in. On a pink moped. We are told they DONT HAVE THE PARTS. 10 am today Saturday. Waiting for third truck to be delivered.

Who is going to empty out our first truck into the third one? No clue. Will we be at the hotel again tonight? No clue. We have spent endless hours on the phone and stranded. Customer service is NO help. They send you to roadside assist who could care less. This company needs serious lawsuits. DO NOT USE BUDGET. We rented the truck tuesday and it's Saturday and we are stranded one hour up the road.

As we began to descend through a slightly steep region after Cuyamaca. I was going about 40 miles per hour and began to lightly tap my brakes so as not to pick up too much speed. Right away I knew there was a serious problem. Every time I tapped the breaks the whole truck would shake violently. I continued to try and tap the brakes to keep my speed down and the shaking continued... not to mention the brakes were pressing all the way to the floor and not stopping the vehicle. At this point I began to panic, and so did my kids. I was deathly afraid that I was not going to be able to successfully slow down or stop the truck. There were curves ahead and more down slope, and I knew it was now or never that I had to get this truck to stop or we would end up over the side of the upcoming cliffs.

I made the decision to slowly press down on the emergency break and with the smell of burning rubber was able to finally get the truck to stop and pull it to the very small roadside edge that had about a 10 foot cushion and then a steep cliff. My husband who had been driving behind me pulled over as well. I was shaking and my daughter was crying. We sat there for awhile trying to figure out what to do next. The area that I had pulled over at was unsafe and very narrow, and cars were whizzing past us.

My husband decided to get into the truck and very slowly with hazard lights on coast down the rest of the mountain. He kept the truck at about 20 mph and stayed on the brakes until we were off the mountain. We were able to crawl the truck the rest of the way never going over 50 mph (on flat roads of course). When we turned the truck in the following day we mentioned to them what had happened and they said they would have the brakes looked at right away. They said it sounds like someone had overheated the brakes and they had warped.

I called customer service to discuss the issue and they were NOT helpful at all. I was sent in circles talking to all different people. The manager I have still to reach. My phone is still ringing as I wait for someone to answer. One person I spoke to offered me a 15% discount... that's $75 for THAT!!! I am appalled at their lack of accountability! It's shameful! I also should mention that when I called and spoke to roadside to see if that particular truck had been reported with damage... NOTHING was on file! So some other poor family could be headed for the same disastrous situation. BUYER BEWARE! DO NOT GO WITH BUDGET!!! SPEND THE EXTRA $$$ AND GO TO U-HAUL. Never again Budget. You have lost my business for life and I will never recommend you to anyone... ever!!!

I said no they were my mothers. He asked if I had a credit card. I said yes ignorantly. He got back on the phone and told ** it worked. He gave me the phone and ** told me I would be reimbursed in a few days. The manager printed me a receipt for a balance owing the $935.00. He said he probably won't get his money. I didn't understand what he meant, but was glad it was over. I called the credit card company that night to ask for more credit and that is when I found out they stole my money. They forced the "late fees" off my card without my knowledge or consent.

I did everything possible to get it taken care of through the company. Nothing! I sent receipts for time, motels and food for the days I was forced to sleep in the truck waiting for him amounting to more than $1,500. Nothing. I ended up losing my apartment and living in a shelter for 6 weeks. It was hell and he was the devil. It has been over a year and I’m just now getting stable. I am disable and had to come back to Colorado to live with my mother because my voucher for rental assistance was running out. I was homeless for 7 months! I had to leave all of my stuff in a storage unit for $52.00 a month. All my documents and receipts are in the shed. I've tried on numerous occasions to get copies sent and no reply! I am very angry! What country is this that I live in?

But it was "Budget" who had told us this. We didn't have a choice so had to take the truck as we were moving that day. When leaving the depot ** told us that they only look at the fuel gauge so if it's on full when it comes back is fine. I filled the truck with diesel before returning it and the gauge was at full and the bowser had clicked to signify it was full.

Upon returning the truck they opened the tank and tested by sticking their finger in the tank to see if it was brimmed. I then noticed some things myself that didn't seem right. The front tyres were completely bald and the vehicle was several thousand kms beyond its service time. When I pointed this out to ** from the front desk, I asked "What if something went wrong?" He looked back at me and said "Did something go wrong?" I started to explain that this was hardly the point and that the potential for danger was there. He cut me off, took a big stride towards me, got in my face and said much louder this time "DID... SOMETHING... GO... WRONG?!".

I was stunned where I stood. He eventually conceded somewhat and told me if I fill the truck up even further myself he would see what he could do about the rental rate. We just wanted it to be over at this point and reluctantly agreed. Upon returning he did nothing for us and gave us back only the original bond. This supposedly reputable company had treated us so badly, it was beyond belief.

40 miles out of town it broke down. This is at 11 am, he immediately called the roadside assistance. From the original call at 11, the mechanic arrived around 1 or 1:30. The gentleman who came out while it took him a long time to get there, he was very polite and helpful. He diagnosed it as a water pump failure and... of course there is no replacement part. We were told that Budget will have someone come tow the truck back to the empty house and they will hire movers to transfer our belongings from one truck to the other. The mechanic left and assured us the tow truck would be there in an hour to hour and half. Over two hours later he shows up.. and again.. took a long time to get there but he was very nice as well, he was from Austex Towing. We called Budget more times than I care to count during our almost 6 hours on the side of the road waiting and waiting.

I have never ever come across a company who cared less about their customer or the fact that their faulty equipment had him stranded on the side of the road for hours. They had to look for a truck and could ONLY email their inventory department, they are not allowed to call them. The roadside assistance rep we were speaking to used the word unfortunately like it was the only word she was allowed to use. We asked to be transferred to a manager to get some kind of resolution as we at this point are STILL on the side of the road and were desperate to find out if he was going to be able to still make the trip and what the alternative was.

**, who is supposedly the manager for that emergency roadside assistance had the same attitude. We are waiting for the inventory department, we asked if he could call a competitor truck agency and get us a truck, he stated we could call them but he would not, they don't do that. It did not matter how many hours we had been on the side of the road or that he would be missing a day of work at a new job, our situation did not affect him at all. I told him I would be leaving a review and he said something along the lines of please do. After reading all the other reviews I can see why he didn't care. Also, that same ** is handling our continued work order today.. when we found that out our hopes of him actually getting a truck today and driving as far as he can dwindle to nothing. This man should not be in any position to speak with customers or manage any kind of department.

This started Saturday morning at 11am, it is now Sunday morning at 12:00 and guess what? They are STILL waiting to hear back from their inventory department. We have had many promises of call backs and yet the only one as of yet was when he pleaded with ** a rep in the roadside assistance to please call him back personally. She actually did and she was the first one to do so, although her response was they still have not heard back from inventory but she was working on it.

How do you deal with a company that does not care what position their lack of service and faulty equipment has put you in? He explained the job, the extra money for our dog being boarded and he got back, "unfortunately we are waiting to hear from inventory." We feel completely stuck and discouraged. Please do not rent from this company. I look at reviews on almost everything and I did not do it for the truck rental. I went to consumer reviews while we were stranded on the side of the road, if I had done that to begin with I would never have even called them. Please visit that site and check over the reviews.

Update Sunday Night- Replacement truck came in time. Called Budget about the people who were going to transfer the furniture from one truck to the other, they were five minutes away. Called back 30 minutes later and they were 15 minutes away. Thirty minutes after that the guys who would be doing the transfer called and said they were 30 minutes away, they got caught in a storm. They replaced our 24 truck with a smaller truck without telling us, the movers had to work hard to get the contents of our fully loaded 24 truck to fit into this smaller truck. He is on his way and I really hope this is the end of our ordeal with Budget Truck Rental. They will not discuss any type of reimbursement until after the truck has been returned.

Two weeks after returning the truck, we received a BILL from Budget for over $400 ($50 of which was an administration fee to be paid to Budget) to CHANGE A TIRE THAT WAS FAULTY IN THE FIRST PLACE. Awful, awful business model and horrible customer service. Not to mention that when we returned the truck (which had over 200,000 miles on it, mind you) we were given the third degree about multiple things on the truck that we couldn't possible have damaged ourselves and asked to sign an affidavit about pre-existing problems. Will never rent from this company again and advise others against it. I'm actually writing a letter to the USPS to ask them to stop offering coupons for the company, an implicit endorsement of an unethical company.

Flash forward, 1,640 extra miles on my car, $1,500 extra in out-of-pocket expenses, two days behind schedule because we had to stop to rest, couldn't alternate drivers as planned, and two days of missed work, **, a level 2 customer service agent, said that they could only offer me $100 reimbursement because they cannot guarantee availability of equipment. THAT WAS NOT THE ISSUE. I requested a direct phone call, and all they will do is push me aside by way of email.

When I asked where I was supposed to stay (a hotel, sleep in the truck?) he told me I could always stay at the residence I was calling from (how presumptuous!). Anyway, I truck on in the incredibly hot truck that maybe gets 6 miles to the gallon. I went to return the truck to the address I was given in Marietta, Ga and it's someone's house in a neighborhood. So I call customer service again and they tell me that they are closed (no, it's someone's residence but they won't listen to me) and they tell me I can either wait until the next morning to return it or take it to an alternate location about 10 miles away. I opted for the alternate location because, hello, it's someone's house. I should mention that I filled the gas tank up a couple of miles away from the first location.

So I drive to the alternate location and drop off the truck. The next day I notice they charged my bank account $40! So I called them yet again for them to tell me I was charged $30 for not topping off the tank and the rest is gas. I tell them that they gave me the wrong address and gave me the alternate location but they said it didn't matter and that it was a legitimate charge that I was responsible for and refused to refund it. They also refused to refund any part of the $600 I paid for the truck that advertised AC but did not have. Just get a U-Haul, the trucks get better gas mileage and they won't rip you off.

When I told them that they should make sure I will get the truck at the location that I booked online, they assured me to try to arrange for that. 10 minutes later, I got a call, announcing that they actually don't have a truck at all for me. At no location. They will try again to find something or I should just look for another company. 3 day before I moved. Don't make reservation with Budget! They are pricey, have no customer service and are not able to handle online reservation.

The guy went to find something to clean it off with and came back with a metal garden shovel. He tried to poke at the portion hanging over the edge of the truck but had no luck. Due to my move my father had a ladder in the back of his truck which he then used to climb on top of the truck which was extremely slippery. All the guy said was to be careful.

All Budget Truck Rental Customer service offered was a refund of $25 which is their "Cleaning Fee" provided to customers when trucks are not clean. This was hardly the same type of situation and Budget Truck Rental should be accepting responsibility for their locations.

SO I called the 5394 number, I asked my questions and then the person tells me "you need to call the 1-800-432-8343 to find out about the protections plan". I asked to talk to the manager and he said, "She is not here, she will be here in 30 min." Then I said, "What is your name and your manager's name?", and he said he CAN'T disclose that because he doesn't know me. LOL. Anyways I cancel my rental and I will NEVER use Budget and will be happily spread the word about what a scam this company is.

After a long discussion with Budget in Federal Way my wife was able to get an agreement with Budget to go and get a truck and bring it to Federal Way by the close of business on February 27, 2015. Because the truck was not available on the promised date I had to pay the loading crew and the loading crew was no longer available to assist when Budget finally got me a truck a day later on February 27, 2015. I had a deadline of moving all my belongings out of the apartment where I was staying in Tumwater Washington by February 28, 2015 and the delay cost me two days as I was not able to move any items after driving the approximate 70 mile round trip to pick up the truck in Federal Way Washington in rush hour traffic.

As a diabetic with circulation problems I was forced, by time constraints associated with the fact that Budget gave me misinformation about having a truck available in Federal Way on February 26, 2015, to move all of my belongings including appliances, furniture, tools and all other household items by myself. Budget used the information I gave them on February 25, 2015 when I reserved the truck, to overcharge me from the agreed upon amount taking $1571.79 off my card while rushing me out of their Federal Way location and having me review damage on the truck in the dark. The Budget staff who completed the damage report before I got there noticed an issue with the lights during our walk around but the issue seemed to correct itself and she advised me that she would note the issue with the lights in case I had a problem.

On March 3, 2015 Budget again charged my card a $50 no show fee for not picking up the truck as agreed on February 26, 2015. By myself I was not able to finish loading the truck, rest and start my trip until March 6, 2015 which gave me only four days to drive 3000 miles by myself. The preexisting damage to the truck caused the lights to go out 600 miles into my trip which resulted in me being pulled over by the police in Boise Idaho, frisked, held out of the truck in the cold with circulations problems after midnight for over an hour while a drug dog and police officer searched the trucks. Roadside Assistance caused me additional time and money as they sent out Country Roadside Repair which had no clue as to assessing the lighting problem and blamed it on the truck being overweight.

I was forced to follow The Country Roadside Repair truck to multiple hotels for over two and a half hours with a promise of having me stay in a hotel overnight until they can get a crew out to give me a road worthy truck and transfer my belongings to the other truck. This was after I had already been on the road driving for 16 hours. There was not a hotel that was not totally booked in all of Boise Idaho or in a 40 mile radius of Boise. Further unbeknown to me, Country Roadside Repair assessed the truck that I was driving as unsafe due to what he viewed as an overload reporting that the truck was so overloaded that the wheels were rubbing the truck box and that was what probably caused the problems with the lights. To believe what he reported and then have me follow him for two and a half hours means that he willfully put me at risk or that he willfully made a fraudulent report of the status of the truck.

Boise Towing Company was called in to verify the claims of Country Roadside Repair and found that the truck was not overloaded and that in his assessment as a 30 year veteran in moving heavy equipment that my suburban did not supersede the weight limits of the tow-dolly. I was advised after the incident with the lights that I could not change the vehicle I was towing which resulted in me having to leave my 1993 suburban in Boise Idaho 2400 miles from my home with no way to recover it. I was held over for 18 hours after the police stopped me dealing with the police, roadside assistance and customer care. I was finally sent a person from roadside assistance that knew what he was doing and assessed and fixed the light problem in about an hour.

Finally, I made it to DC, unloaded and returned the truck only to have an additional $392.21 taken off my card with no mention as to what it was deducted for nor did they ever make contact with me or give me a copy of the itemized bill or return my copy of the contract which the signs said I had to put in the drop box with the key to the truck when dropping the truck off on March 11, 2015 one day late due to the truck being uninspected and damaged.

So I have had Budget take $2014.00 out of my bank account for a rental that was quoted $1395.20. I lost my suburban and physically beat myself up from overexertion, lack of rest and having to spend the night and much of the next day in a truck with a medical condition that could have resulted in hospitalization. This does not include the gas I spent following roadside assistance with a full truck and towing a suburban for two and a half hours. I would like to have an itemized bill have my overcharges returned and receive compensation for the emotional, physical and financial lost I incurred from all of the mistakes that Budget made on this rental.

They towed it yesterday and told us we need a bigger truck. The problem is they want us to pay the full amount for a bigger truck. I already paid for an additional 3 days and was unable to use the truck. They are refusing to help us. I've already spent over 3,000 on this rental, gas, and additional days we never used. The roadside assistance employees refused to help us and customer service employees refused to help us.

Now we're stuck in California and my kids are in another state waiting to get home. They refused to give us our money back for the days we didn't use it 'cause they said it's our fault that it broke down. They refuse to take responsibility for giving us the wrong truck and for giving us a truck with a faulty transmission. So they basically just stole from me and used the weight of the truck as an excuse to steal my money. I'm a military veteran with a family who was hoping to make a change and give a better life to my children just to be cheated and robbed by Budget.

That should have been the first clue that this company could care less about its customers that he so willingly gave their number to call. So the phone shuffle began. After talking to a service rep she said she would have to turn it over to a recovery expert. Two hours later I get a call from ** a recovery expert. Obviously Budget's term expert is very different than mine. ** left a message saying he has no truck available. So I call back and he reaffirms that there is no truck available until the 2nd of March. When I bring up the less than 24 hour notice he said that is policy that they wait until 24 hours out to confirm trucks. That he can get me a truck 3 days later. No care that their complete incompetence is costing me money and adding to the stress of moving.

I work in trucking for a major carrier and this is complete lack of planning or oversight. My truck was reserved 2 weeks ago at a very low corporate rate. I wonder who else was denied a truck in the area and what the rate were those trucks reserved at? The website shows sold out currently, but when reserved this was not the case, so that reaffirms that some planning and foresight is available and that maybe areas are overbooked purposely with higher rates getting preference.

I went to U-Haul and reserved a truck and confirmed availability all at the same time. So I will be paying extra for ** and expert **'s complete incompetence and lack of customer service. Their dismissive nature and lack of caring completely reflects my opinion of Budget rental from this point forward. I will post this to every Military Veteran board I can and every trucking industry site I have access to through my company to warn people that Budget should not be an option for rentals. If you do not heed this warning, and you choose to roll the dice and use them, good luck and be ready for no customer service and no truck and no notice to plan accordingly. AGAIN, the worst truck rental company - BEWARE!

Mind you, my boyfriend and I also hired a moving company so that truck was packed perfectly so that we could fit the entire state of NH in there if we needed to. So the journey begins after 12 hours of moving and last minute cleaning. We hit the road at 6 am to head to Massachusetts to drop our extra car off and get some things done. We come inside to take a nap before driving the 24 hour hike to Florida and when we get up, the truck barely starts. Check engine light is on and now it's flashing check transmission. The truck is bucking and sounds like it's about to stall out. It was 10 pm when we first tried to start the thing. Now it is 3 am and we are still waiting for a mechanic.

I suppose I should feel lucky this happened BEFORE really getting on the road but my question is: If they can't fix it quickly or at this location, what are they going to do? As mentioned, it took 12 hours to get everything in there to begin with. I'm not paying ANOTHER moving company to unload this and put it in another truck. Not going to happen. I suppose all I can say is...I am a little nervous but hopefully everything comes together and it could have been worse! And hopefully this review is not followed by another one from me explaining the next horrible thing that could happen today or tomorrow. Is it even legal to rent a truck out with a check engine light on?

I hate the word BUDGET because of this company. I want all Budget customers that have been wronged to come together and place a huge lawsuit on Budget truck company. They do not care about customers and their safety on the road. I have supporting pictures that Budget truck cannot alter, and fabricate. Reviews and research are very important to read before spending your money.

The whole day was lost, so I had to rehire unloaders for Monday, due to the crew I had for Sunday had to work. I then contacted Budget customer service, only to be told that nothing was able to be done with my concerns, until truck returned and contract closed. I returned truck on Tuesday by 9:00 a.m., spoke to customer service, had to call several times due to no return call from supervisor or manager within 2 hrs. I decided to call and hold for a supervisor, and they have a non-caring attitude about the customer and concern. However was given a credit of 60.00, and I felt that was not sufficient for my time, after speaking to a manager, I received a credit of $112.00 and will never use BUDGET TRUCK RENTAL AGAIN!!!

This is where my experience starts down hill: I was informed that even though I had made reservations and had a confirmation number did not mean that I would be getting a truck. I was told that I would have to go to another location about 10 miles down Phillips Hwy. to get a truck. After some coaxing she agreed to call them to verify they had the truck. She also said that she would call them and transfer my reservation down to them as soon as I left. She never did! This clerk wasn't rude but had an "I just don't care, it's your problem" attitude.

I wish I had read some of the reviews on this company before using them. It all did not turn out bad, the service at the location where I finally got a truck was very good, both check out and checking the truck back in was handled in a professional and courteous manner. I would not recommend using this company for any truck rentals; their reservations don't mean a thing.

As I start the engine I noted the van was half empty. I pointed out that they mark the form in the office as full. His reply was, “The gauge is faulty” and left. I was not happy with his answer. I look for a wooden stick and miss read the diesel full tank. IT WAS HALF EMPTY. I march to the office and ask someone to come and check the full level. I was kept for about 20 minutes and then left. (Lucky for me I kept those pages as it turn to be 3 pages, the top one was fold back so I could not see the rates and charges).

As I return the van the next day I was told that I receive from Budget $15.32 and I was ask for the credit card. I got suspicious. I ask to see the invoice for the charges. I was promise I will get it after I sign with the card. DON’T GIVE THE CARD UNLESS YOU SEE WHAT WILL BE CHARGED AND DON’T SIGN ANYTHING YOU’RE NOT HAPPY ABOUT!!! The booking price was estimated $114.10. The actual charges were $564.32. AS I said: CROOKS, LIARS, AND THIEVES!

We decided a few weeks before our scheduled move...that we wanted to take a look at the truck to determine space in the cab area for our two dogs who are also going... so we take a drive over to the dealer who is suppose to have our truck. We just wanted to get an idea of space in the cab to be sure we and the dogs would be comfortable and whether we needed a small crate. I don't know why we felt it was necessary to do this..but looking back... I believe it was divine intervention.

Well we arrive at what is a gas station? Confused ...because we do not see any trucks.... nope not one truck... why? Because it's on longer in business. The online rental agent booked us for rental equipment from a dealer who isn't there... Seriously? So we call customer service. .. and they tell us that they have never encountered this before. So it seemed simple enough to change our pick up to a different dealer. BUT no... Budget may be operated by a bunch of simpletons but there is nothing simple about the operation.

After multiple phone calls with many Budgetarians... we find ourselves without a truck and now they will not validate the original price quote. If we do get a truck... which by the way... they don't guarantee. . We will be required to pay double the price of our original quote and reservation that was made three months earlier with a dealer that they knew wasn't there anymore... who operates a business like this? At least we were able to make alternative arrangements before our moving date. But that's only because we decided to check out the truck and dealer ahead of time. My advice... spend the extra $$$ for a UHaul... They actually give courtesy to the customers and in my book that's a big deal.

The only option we were given was to take a 16' or wait until the next afternoon (possibly it would be ready - no guarantees). We knew it would not fit in a 16'. Heather tried everything, but her hands were tied with corporate. She set up a 20' rental from U-Haul and told us to go there and get it (for the same price as we were paying for a 24' truck BTW). Our choice 16' or 20' or nothing. After repeated assurances it would fit if we packed it good - we did. Five hours later and packing every nook and cranny-guess what? We were right again - does not fit!

Called corporate in the morning - Dave ** was a condescending jerk that said, and I quote, "You are not a Budget customer. Call U-Haul if it doesn't fit and complain to them. Complain to all social media sites you want to. If you want to rent another truck, I can help you, otherwise you're not our problem." Grrr! They completely broke our contract by not having our truck ready, but that's not their problem? He was so busy trying to cover his behind that he wouldn't even try to help us find a solution! We were told that "RESERVATIONS DO NOT GUARANTEE A TRUCK ONLY THE RATE!" Now a single mother of two is stuck with her stuff 1000 miles away! I have used rental trucks for 15yrs, I will never use Budget again - you don't even get what you pay for!

The next day I was first in line and I sat and waited for truck but truck was not finished until 10:30 a.m. My family and I ended up getting on the road at 11:30 am. Not only did we leave 2 1/2 hours late, it caused me to sit in 2 hours of traffic in DC and guess what? That dam engine light came back on 45 minutes into my 8 and 1/2 hour drive. I told my wife I will let the engine blow before I stop again but thankfully we made it ok. The next week I called customer service on my lunch break and explained what happen and the guy told me that they would credit me 100 bucks. I said ok and got back to work (my mistake). After thinking about driving to the shop in the morning, sitting and waiting for 3 hours for the truck, the gas I spent to and from the shop, and the fact that they caused me to sit in 2 hrs of traffic, I called back and said I was not satisfied with 100 dollar credit on a 1000 dollar rental when it cost me many hours.

The guy on the phone put me on the phone with a female manager who I could tell the minute she got on the phone, that it wasn't going to be a pleasant phone call. I explained everything again and she asked why am I calling after already agreeing to a 100 dollar credit. I told her that after further thought, the amount of wasted time, aggravation and gas spent driving to and from the repair shop that it was not compensation enough. She smartly replied that the 100 dollars was my compensation for my time and aggravation. In a condescending manner she said that she did the math and that my gas consumption equals out to 17 dollars but that she would gladly round that up to 20 dollars. I told her she can keep her twenty dollars and she can cancel my 1600 dollar rental for the next weekend. She replied, "I will gladly do that right now for you." She did, and I went to Penske and got a bigger truck for cheaper and very was please with them and only wish I had start at Penske first.

I was on the phone with the actual Budget truck place in CA at the same time, and they said, "We don't have a truck and none will be here for over 48 hours." So, isn't this fraud or bait and switch or something illegal? I asked to speak to someone with more authority and after 30 minutes on the line a customer service representative, who was very rude, said it says on the webpage that an actual truck might not be available. Go to U-Haul. They were pleasant and had a truck available, price matched and you didn't even have to reserve a truck that was never even planned to be available. This company should NOT be allowed to be in business.

Additionally, the new location did not have a truck to rent so I would still need to go to the original location to pick up my rental truck. This was not made clear until I began asking questions. The issue then became that the location with the tow was not open on Sunday. So now I needed to inconveniently pick up my rental truck on Saturday, lose time at work and then drive 2.5 hours round trip to pick up the tow after picking up my truck rental. I PAID for my rental in Scotia, NY after having to redo the entire contract because the employee forgot to put on the insurance, and noticed that the reservation was changed to Wednesday. The reservation I created was for THURSDAY. The man working the budget location had no idea how to fix it, didn't want to hold me up because Budget customer service wasn't open so said he would take care of it and contact me back.

I stupidly left before this was taken care of. I did not receive the promised phone call, so I called to confirm on Sunday. Next when I arrived to the unfriendly location that didn't have a clue that I was coming to pick up the tow, I was informed that they would not assist in hooking up the tow to the truck. Great! Fast forward a few days to putting the Dodge Dakota (that I had told Budget would be the vehicle I was towing) on the tow. It doesn't fit. I arrived at my return location to find the employee illegally parked in the only handicap parking space at the location. As a handicapped individual with an actual hanging tag for my vehicle I find this to be disgusting AND ILLEGAL. When I returned the truck, I was handed a receipt with an additional charge and no explanation. I was charged an additional $159.04 for an extra day.

However, I returned the rental truck on the day that I made my reservation for. I was told at the counter that they would refund me $99. But that was the best they could do. I then had to wait an hour and a half to call Budget customer service. I spoke with rude female that clearly is not a morning person. She told me that my extra day was removed from my reservation and that she would only refund me the $15 dollar difference from the $85 rate to the $70 special rate that I had. But that the rest of the charges were because I kept the rental late. I DID NOT KEEP THE RENTAL LATE. MY RESERVATION WAS FOR 10/19-10/23. I then expressed my concern with her about the tow not fitting my vehicle. She said, "And what did you do about it?" She deemed it as my fault for not calling roadside assistance. Why should I? As the customer have to call roadside assistance after specifically telling Budget what I would be towing. And at this point I was already at my final destination.

My fiance was driving the truck. She then told me that I would need to call my return location to get any additional assistance. I did and was told that they could not/would not help me or change anything. I said so in the last 1.5 hours this has changed. I was told yes, and that the person who offered me the $99 was not authorized to do so. I will never use Budget Rental for anything again. This company is completely unprofessional and clearly does not have a desire for good customer service. I was the one completely inconvenienced in the entire situation from the multiple phone calls with different information to not being able to park in the only handicap spot at the location because the employee of Budget felt that it would be okay to park there. I have photographic proof of the vehicle parked in the spot as well as the truck I was towing not fitting on the tow that was provided.

A few days later I checked my card statement and I saw two budget transactions, one was my bills for the move, the other was a $50 no show fee. I called their billing office and explained the no truck situation and they said I would be refunded within ten days. I called again 10/16/14 because I didn't see the refund and was told it should come in the following day by a rude representative that said "weren't you told it would take some time." It is now 10/22/14 and still no refund, I called the billing office only to be told the request for refund was just put in yesterday so I must wait another 10 days depending on my bank. No remorse, no emotion - just rude. I asked for Manager, now was told there's nothing anyone else can do for me so I won't be transferred to a manager. Smh. Never again!!!

6-20-14, I reserved a Budget 16 truck for 7-12-14 (three weeks ahead)-- the confirmation message was "Congratulations! You're Finished." 7-11-14, Voicemail left at 5:07 p.m. and received about 5:30 p.m. (the night before the move) from the vendor essentially saying, "We don't have a truck for you. You can call the 800# to see if they can find a truck." I had people arriving 9:00 a.m. the next morning to move me but now no truck. 7-11-14 I immediately called the Budget #800 number. I agreed to broaden the search to other locations and other truck sizes. Budget's representative told me that he would forward the request and I would hear from someone within two (2) hours.

7-12-14, more than 12 hours later at 8:30 a.m (1/2 hour before the movers arrived) I received a call that a truck was located at another location. I declined because I had located a truck from another company (U-Haul, which was exceptionally helpful and professional). A reserved truck should be guaranteed unless there is an extenuating circumstance like an accident or break down. I can only assume this is not the case in my situation because no information was shared. And when a truck does become unavailable, a replacement should be found within the 2 hour timeframe promised. My experience with Budget Truck Rental was so frustrating and upsetting that I will do everything possible to avoid ever using Budget Rental again.

When I got to my first stop, Nashville, and came to a stop, I heard a crashing sound in the back. When I got to my hotel, I discovered the wheels had gone over the front of the dolly, all caused by the wooden blocks the dealership had put there, and damage had been done to my car. They sent a tow truck out the next morning, and after we removed the blocks, the wheels went back down into the wheel well, where it could be really secured, and I went on my way, without further incident. All of this was captured in photos.

When I got to Austin on September 3, I contacted my insurance company and also Budget about the damage to my car. I sent the required form to Budget on September 5, and put the car in the shop for repairs, which were done at a cost of about $2,200 of which I paid a $500 deductible. My insurance company, USAA, has been trying to work with Budget for over a month now, and as far as I know, nothing has been accomplished. It appears that Budget is not willing to accept that they are the ones who caused the problem and the damage to my car, but I will keep at them until they acknowledge the responsibility for their incompetence and negligence, which caused damage to my car.

On July 31st, I received a bill for $525.00 for the tow. The letter however refers to damages. They suggested I contact my insurance company to cover the loss or collision damage reimbursement? I called about the discrepancy (there was no collision or damage) and was told that's just the way it was written up? I told Kimberlene **, who works at Budget Vehicle Damage Claims Department that I felt $525.00 was outrageous for this towing less than FOUR miles and that I felt they were fraudulently billing me for an accident, THAT NEVER OCCURRED.

She said she would call the towing company to ask about why it was so much. She said I couldn't call as they would not talk to me as they were the tow company's customer. Of course nobody ever responded to her messages per our phone conversation. We found out that Budget had dispatched a tow truck from Champagne, IL, some 40+ miles away, rather than using a local tow company in Decatur, IL (Of which there are MANY).

I wrote to the Legal Department of Budget, expressing my displeasure and have not had a response to that letter that was received September 8th per certified mail receipt. I spoke with Kimberlene again, after receiving a letter saying that I needed to provide my insurance information or my credit card information to pay and this is referred to as a follow-up letter regarding the "damages" sustained to our truck rental unit, during your rental experience, and told her I had contacted their legal department. I asked if there was anything I could do to avoid this claim from going to collection and she said, "No, just pay it." We have offered to settle by paying $150 for the towing, MORE than any 4 mile tow should cost. They are now turning it over to a collection agency, per their threat! Plain and simple, this is a scam. They can sue if they chose, but we WILL NOT pay them this OUTRAGEOUS fee!

Assuming that this minor inconvenience was taken care of, I thought no more about it until I checked my credit statement and see that I was charged $50 for a 'NO SHOW'. I called their service line and ended up on the phone with a rude individual who acted as if I was the inconvenience and offered no explanation outside of telling me it was my mistake. I DO NOT RECOMMEND USING THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU ENJOY AN UNNECESSARY HEADACHE.

So at 9 pm Saturday night we called the road side auto, met service and told them we were stuck broken down in the middle of the road with a truck and trailer. The guy Jim told me he would call us back in a few minutes with an estimate on how long it will be. Well at 10:30 pm I called back because no one had called me yet and Jim said to me, "I haven't been able to contact anyone to come get you yet. But if people like you didn't keep calling all night then I could get my job done."

So then after waiting another 3 hours finally someone showed to tow the truck out of the middle of the street. And the mechanic shortly after showed to only look at it for one minute and say the transmission was blown and it can't be fixed. So we had to leave our truck in a parking lot overnight and the next day they sent someone to tow the truck to my storage location so I could unload the truck. My storage location refused to let them leave a broken down truck on their property so I had to call Customer service again. When I called and explained this to them they said there was nothing they could do for me, to just have to tow guy put the truck down across the street and to carry my things over to the storage unit.

So then I proceeded to tell him I was absolutely sick of talking to him and if that's what he wanted me to do then he could bring his happy ** over and move my ** across the street for me or to let me speak to a manager. And instead of letting me talk to a manager he hung up on me. So after an hour and a half on the phone with them, finally we came to the conclusion to allow the tow truck to stay at U-Haul storage with the broken down truck while we unloaded it in case it needed to be moved.

So finally I was able to get all of my things off of the truck. I was told I had to be the one to contact the drop off location and let them know that it wouldn't be coming because of it breaking down. So for three days multiple times a day I tried to call them but could never get an answer. So I called customer service again to let them know that I couldn't get a hold of them and that I needed them to close our account so I could get the compensation I was promised over and over again. The guy assured me that he would get it closed and for me not to worry about it any longer and to call back in about a week to get my compensation.

So I called back and guess what? The ** account still wasn't closed. So after talking to yet another customer service representative she apologized and promised to hand this over to the supervisor which I feel like should have been done in the beginning. So I finally got a call today and they said the best they can do for all of my troubles is to refund me $125 of my $775 truck rental, not to mention gas money when the truck only gets 6 miles a gallon...

Also I had a trailer from budget to tow my SUV which they ask the make and model to get a "proper fitting" trailer. Anyways, when we went to take my car off the trailer we notice it was covered in transmission fluid which has stained the plastic handles and other parts on my car. And my rear bumper was completely torn up in the move. The trailer apparently wasn't a good fit and it rubbed the rear bumper down so now there is missing paint and scratches all over it. So I still have forms to fill out for claims and time I do not want to waste dealing with this company. Tell me would this have been worth your money? Most definitely a ton of money and time wasted. Don't waste yours!

In contrast your competitor U-Haul provided me quick, confident and competent service over the phone, assuring me that my truck would be available. I received a confirmation instantly with my pick-up info including address, phone number of site as well as my reference number. Unlike Budget the staff on the phone was intelligent, courteous and happy to help. To double check I called the pick-up location and they have me all set with my U-Haul truck.

In short your service in both quality of care on the phone with the customer as well as your technological infrastructure is poor. I have posted this review on all available sites in an effort to encourage any and all possible future clients of yours to pay a fee of only 20% more and go with U-Haul. Oh ya, if the client is a AAA member the price is identical to yours.

Upon their arrival in Council Grove, Kansas on 4/30/2014 it became obvious to Janice **and Brian **, after speaking to the Council Grove water inspector Derrick **, that the water going into the home that they were supposed to rent was contaminated and ALL water coming from the man-made lake in Council Grove had violated EPA standards and a warning had been issued declaring that the unsafe water may lead to adverse health effects, liver or kidney problems and may lead to an increased risk of getting cancer. Because the homeowner wanted to rent the home regardless, Janice **and Brian ** had been enticed by the homeowner to move from Branson, Missouri to Council Grove, Kansas through a Craigslist ad and several phone conversations that ensued without any knowledge being divulged to them of the water conditions by the homeowner until after they arrived in Council Grove, Kansas the day that they were to move in. Then and only then, were the water conditions revealed through a document (enclosed) that made it illegal for the homeowner to rent the home without giving the renters the document.

This document, that should have been presented to Janice and Brian before moving from Missouri to Kansas, was given to them just seconds before they signed the lease with the words from the homeowner: It's nothing important, just a water notice. Janice** and Brian ** had no choice but to protect their health and leave Council Grove. They drove the Budget truck to Manhattan, Kansas and discovered that the city's hotels were by-and-large at full-capacity but they were blessed to find one room open at a hotel that would allow the Budget truck and auto trailer carrying their Cadillac to park outside. The room was $120 per night. They stayed for 24-hours and spent a great deal of time calling apartment complexes looking for an apartment. Most everyone that they called said that there would be no openings until college students would be moving out at the end of May 2014. Janice ** and Brian ** could not wait that long because the hotel would be way too expensive for that length of time. After discussing their plight, they decided to travel to Denver as it was a city that would have many housing opportunities and it was a straight drive from Manhattan on Highway I70 that would take approximately 9 hours.

First, they called their Budget truck drop-off location: Homestead Rental in Manhattan, Kansas and explained to the manager what had happened so that he would know why the Budget truck was not being delivered to his business at that time. He documented the call and thanked Janice for calling. They traveled straight through to Denver and as they were almost there a passerby on the left side of the Budget truck said that one of the tires on the right side of the auto trailer had blown. Janice ** pulled into a Walmart and had two mechanics look at the Budget truck and also check the oil and fluid levels. The tire that had blown was backed by another tire on the left side of the auto trailer that was holding up the auto trailer and also lifting up the rim of the blown tire so that it did not touch the ground. It could be driven, but if the second tire blew it could be traumatic. Janice ** and Brian ** began looking for a hotel room shortly thereafter in Denver. After they found a room that night, the next morning Janice ** called Budget truck Customer Service and explained ALL that had happened, speaking to representative Jay.

Janice ** explained to Jay that she did not understand why Branson Motor Coach had even given her this auto trailer that was full of rust with tires that had little tread on them. She told Jay that she had asked for another auto trailer but they told her it was the only one that they had. Since it was two mechanics, who loaded her Cadillac onto the rusty auto trailer, she assumed that they knew what they were doing. She also told Jay that at least two of the tires had no tread on them the one that had obviously busted because of little tread and then one on the opposite side of the auto trailer that hardly had any tread at all. She expressed concern and told Jay that she needed to check out of the hotel and find an apartment as soon as possible because she was running low on funds due to the Craigslist scam, that had caused her to leave Council Grove, and had left her without housing and numerous unanticipated expenses. She told Jay that the Budget truck and auto trailer were fine, but Janice was not knowledgeable about what should be done and that is why she was explaining to Jay all that had happened.

Jay told Janice that he understood that she had complications that made the trip difficult and that Budget could issue a refund but that it was important that she speak to Emergency Roadside Assistance because they could come to the hotel that day and deal with the auto trailer and that he would connect her to Emergency Roadside Assistance. Janice was connected to Emergency Roadside Assistance and Joshua in Cherryville, North Carolina answered. Janice explained to Joshua what had happened but Joshua did not respond respectfully or patiently as Jay had. Joshua rudely exclaimed to Janice: "What is it that you want me to do, lady?" Janice told Joshua: "I have explained to you what has happened after explaining it to customer service, who connected me to you. You are the emergency roadside assistance professional, you tell me what needs to be done. Aren't you the one that should know what needs to be done?" Joshua then said: "Well, that may be true". After Janice explained to Joshua that she did not appreciate his rudeness and that customer service had forwarded the call, Joshua seemed irritated that customer service had forwarded the call so Janice asked to speak to Joshua's supervisor.

Joshua put Janice on hold and never came back to the phone himself nor did the supervisor, so the call was finally disconnected by Janice after she waited and waited with no response. These two calls had resulted in an hour and twenty minutes of wasted time and Janice had experienced high charges for using hotel phones even if the numbers were 1-800. Janice received no help. Janice and Brian then called numerous apartment complexes in Denver looking for an apartment from the hotel lobby computer room after checking out of the hotel. The deposits on the apartments were always equal to the high rent and it seemed that Janice and Brian were running out of money and options. From before they had left Branson, Janice and Brian had prayed repeatedly, together and with church members - before they left Branson, that they would have a safe trip and that the Budget truck and the car would get them to their destination safely. They began to wonder when and where their destination was and they were disappointed that Budget truck left them to deal with the complications of the auto trailer by themselves.

They had no choice but to go to Colorado Springs to find cheaper housing. The part of Denver that they were in was about 30 miles from Colorado Springs and the rent would be less expensive there. They drove 45 miles per hour and made it in to Colorado Springs. As they were looking for a hotel exit, Janice noticed a man driving a BMW that had his right window rolled completely down and was screaming at Janice with very wide eyes. Janice instantly looked at the auto trailer from her side view mirror and noticed that the second tire on the left side of the auto trailer had popped. She slowly took the immediate exit to the right, which slanted on a steep incline in the direction that the Cadillac was leaning on the tilted auto trailer to the left. The exit was a two-lane exit and the cars were speeding by Janice and Brian's truck at approximately 55 miles per hour. Janice, who had driven the entire way, knew that if the Cadillac spilled over it would cause the speeding cars on her left side to crash into the car and because the car was chained to the auto trailer there could potentially be an explosion and some serious injuries.

Janice could not immediately stop the truck because there was no edge on the exit at all, it simply dropped down on the right side, so she kept driving with the flashers on and praying for the Lord God of Hosts to help her and her son Brian and the other drivers. At the top of the exit was some space and so Janice pulled over carefully and made sure that the truck and the trailer were out of harms way. Janice and Brian climbed out of the truck very quickly to avoid getting hit and Janice began to examine the auto trailer. Amazingly, the rims of both busted tires did not seem damaged and the auto trailer and Cadillac were not damaged and the Budget truck had not encountered any damage either. Janice told Brian to get far down the hill to the right because she was going to get the Cadillac off of the auto trailer so that Brian could drive to safety in the Cadillac while she stayed with the auto trailer and Budget truck. They did not have an active cell phone so there was not a way to call for help.

Janice knew that if one passing car was not stable on the road that she could potentially be decapitated as she unlocked the chains underneath the auto trailer and that is why she told Brian to move far from the auto carrier and Budget truck. Janice successfully got the Cadillac off of the auto trailer after approximately 30 minutes of dealing with the chains, pin-locks and backing the Cadillac off of the auto trailer. She then decided to disengage the auto trailer from the Budget truck so that she could drive the Budget truck to safety while her son drove the Cadillac. When she turned the auto trailer jack to disengage it from the Budget truck the metal plate section snapped. There was no way to disengage it from the Budget truck after the metal snapped. Janice expressed to Brian once again that she had no idea why Branson Motor Coach or Budget would allow such a piece of flimsy metal on a rusted auto trailer with treadless tires to have been rented to her for any car much less a Cadillac DVille, DElegance.

Once the Cadillac was unloaded, Janice and Brian were blessed by a couple who pulled over right behind the Cadillac to help. They had a cell phone. They helped Janice to call Budget Emergency Roadside Assistance and Janice spoke to Maranda in Cherryville, North Carolina. Maranda was very helpful and her attitude was respectful and kind. Janice told Maranda that if Joshua would have not been so rude and then left her hanging on the phone when she had called the first time for help this never would have happened. Maranda was shocked that Joshua was a team member who had responded this way and told Janice that every call from a customer was supposed to have been logged in and that Joshua had not logged the call in as he should have. Janice told Maranda that this information was not surprising since she had wanted to lodge a complaint against him with his supervisor. Maranda documented what had happened and told Janice to wait until help came.

Janice and Brian and the couple who stopped waited two hours and nobody showed up so they called Emergency Roadside Assistance again and were told that they did not know when help would arrive - that they were having difficulties getting someone there. The couple left after taking some photos of the scene with their cell phone and agreed to meet Janice and Brian at church in the near future. Janice and Brian waited over two more hours before help arrived. When the tow-truck arrived, the man pulled alongside of the auto trailer and was parked in front of oncoming traffic. He exclaimed: I just hope that I make it through this one! He had nowhere else to park the large tow-truck. Janice was afraid for his life, so she went down toward the entrance of the exit and stood in the middle of the right lane and swung her arms repeatedly in the direction of the left lane so that cars would move over ahead of time before slamming on their brakes and possibly hitting the tow truck. The man did two things in this amount of time. He jump started the Cadillac and loaded the auto trailer onto his tow truck. Janice redirected traffic for approximately twenty minutes, while the man jump started the Cadillac and loaded the auto trailer onto the tow truck safely.

When the tow truck was ready to go, the man told Janice that he would have to follow her to the hotel and unload the auto trailer where she was. Janice told him that this was nonsense. She said that the auto trailer should be hauled to the Budget dealer or to a repair shop not her hotel. The man called Budget on his cell phone from his tow truck that he had now parked in front of the Budget truck. Then he told Janice: "That's where they said I have to take the auto trailer to your hotel". So, the man with the tow truck followed Janice in the Budget truck and Brian followed the tow truck in the Cadillac to the hotel. Then the man unloaded the auto trailer in back of the hotel. Janice and Brian were unable to go to sleep until early in the morning that night because the stress from all that had happened with the Budget truck, the Craigslist scam and the fact that their money was rapidly running out was proving to be overwhelming. Janice was especially stressed from putting her life on the line in order to protect Brian and the tow-truck driver but she was thankful that nobody got hurt and that the truck and auto trailer were also safe.

She decided to call Budget in the morning, since it was late at night, and explain that the auto trailer was located in the back of the hotel and needed to be picked up since she had decided not to put her Cadillac back onto the auto trailer no matter what and because she also decided that there was no way for her to haul the auto trailer anywhere since the metal had snapped on it and the tires on the left side were both blown. The next day Janice called Budget Emergency Roadside Assistance and told everything that had happened to Rich in Cherryville, North Carolina. This was on 5/5/2014 at 10:00 AM.

Rich told Janice in a very rude tone: "We ain't coming to pick the auto trailer up and it's up to you to bring it in. We can't stop charging you for the auto trailer either or fix it until you bring it in to a dealer with the truck and we close you out". Janice said: "Are you kidding me? Didn't you understand ALL that I just explained to you? How do you expect me to bring you the auto trailer when it won't even roll without tires? It should have been taken to a Budget dealer or the repair shop last night and not dumped in the back of this hotel. I would like to speak to your supervisor, please". Rich said: "You can talk to whoever you want to but they're just going to tell you the same thing".

Janice then got on the phone with the supervisor - Rob in Cherryville, North Carolina at 10:40 AM. Janice explained to Rob what the situation was and Rob's response was not much better than Rich's. Janice told Rob that she understood now why two members of his team had bad attitudes that were not conducive to resolving customers problems and only one team member had the right attitude and that was Maranda. It was because Rob, himself the team leader, had the wrong attitude. Janice told Rob that she had been a Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for resorts for years and that good customer service skills were of the utmost importance when leading a successful team. Rob told Janice that all calls were recorded and that it would take days to listen to all that had happened during the course of her trip to decipher what had taken place. Then, he agreed to pick up the auto trailer from the hotel.

The stress continued for Janice and Brian as they looked for a apartment and once again ran into another scam artist trying to rent them an apartment. This man wanted the first months rent and a deposit of equal value in the form of a money order and the money order was to be made out to the street address of the apartment and not a human being or a company. The man had no proof that he owned the apartment or a company and finally admitted that he only cut grass there. Janice and Brian decided to only look at large apartment complexes from that point forward. It took a couple of days and a lot of hard work to find a reputable apartment complex that they signed a lease with. There was a move-in special, however, the rent was far more than they had left Branson thinking that they would pay $1,350 per month was a lot of money to pay for rent. They took the move-in special because they had run out of time to look for an apartment and wanted to turn in the Budget truck. Also, they were exhausted and overwhelmed from the move.

Janice and Brian returned the Budget truck to Waymor Trucks at 2460 Wayside Court in Colorado Springs, 80915 (Dealer #: 809157), which is where Rob had told Janice to return the truck on the day that she spoke to him. The truck was returned on 5/8/2014. The Waymor Trucks representative told Janice that the truck had no damage to it after inspection. Janice told her that it was a miracle after all that had happened, which she explained to the lady in full detail. Janice spent over an hour at Waymor Trucks and expressed great dissatisfaction in the way that Emergency Roadside Assistance had responded to her emergencies and also dissatisfaction in why she had been given such a defective auto trailer in the first place.

The Waymor Trucks representative said: "I can see here that your auto carrier was supposed to have been repaired properly before it was rented to you and it must not have been if the metal snapped, so Budget is probably going to file a claim against the repair dealer for not repairing it properly". Janice exclaimed: "Are you kidding me?" Then, the representative said: "No. I'm looking at it right here in the computer. They were supposed to have repaired that metal piece so that it would hold properly and it broke". Janice told the lady at Waymor Trucks that she expected a refund and that no charges in addition to what she had already paid were authorized. The lady looked at Janice and exclaimed: "I am going to charge you $389.24 to close it out". Janice said: "No. I won't agree to that and I also cancelled my credit card because after Customer Service at Budget told me that I should get a refund I had an idea that you would probably want more money from me instead of the refund that I should be getting after all that I went through with that auto trailer and Emergency Roadside Assistance".

The lady then exclaimed: "You don't have to authorize the charges, I'll just force the charge of $389.24 through because that is what Budget wants me to do". Janice then said: "You've got to be kidding me! That's illegal! You can't just force these charges through on a cancelled credit card. I am telling you that I do not authorize any charges right now". Then, the lady at Waymor Trucks forced the charge of $389.24 through successfully. She then presented Janice with a receipt to sign. Janice then said: "I am not signing that because I told you not to charge a cancelled credit card and you did it anyway. I don't know how you did it, either. How did you force a charge through on a cancelled credit card?" The lady then said: "It went through the first time I tried. You don't have to sign the receipt if you don't want to. As long as the charge went through that's all I need". Then the lady handed Janice a copy of the receipt and Janice and Brian left.

Janice and Brian were dumbfounded at the audacity of the lady at Waymor Trucks and what she said that Budget had told her to do. The next day they went to their bank Academy Bank and spent two and a half hours there explaining to Mr. ** at the Colorado Springs Walmart branch all that had happened and said that they wanted to file a claim for an unauthorized amount of $389.24 that was charged to their account. Janice and Brian then waited for the decision from the bank on the charges. Days later, Academy Bank said that Budget had told them that the charges were authorized and the claim was denied. Budget had lied to Academy Bank about the charges being authorized. There is an unsigned charge receipt (enclosed) to prove that Janice did not authorize the charges and also there is proof in the Academy Bank system that the credit card associated with the original charges, that Budget charged on 4/29/2014, was cancelled before the additional charge of $389.24 were forced through on 5/8/2014 by Waymor Trucks.

Because of the extreme stress and monetary loss from this trip, and the disappointment of what happened from the Craigslist scam, the auto trailer nightmare, the lack of help from Emergency Roadside Assistance, Janice had a physical breakdown and wound up in the hospital completely dehydrated from 10 hours of vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping and migraine headaches. Janice said: "I've never had my body just completely break down like that in my life. It was the worst pain and suffering that I have ever experienced. I think that I stayed strong in order to survive the whole ordeal and then after it was all over and my body and mind realized that it could respond to all that had happened, instead of pushing myself to survive and protect my son, I became severely ill. My body and mind just revolted. It was truly a nightmare. After I passed out on the floor from 10 hours of vomiting and diarrhea that wouldn't stop, my son picked me up from off of the floor and said that it was time to call 911. The ambulance came and put me on a stretcher and took me to the hospital'.

"If I had not gone to the hospital at that time, I may have died. I didn't have a drop of strength left in me. It took a week for me to recover physically after I got out of the hospital. I was completely and utterly exhausted. They took all kinds of tests at the hospital and did lab work that took hours and hours and they could find nothing wrong with me except for exhaustion and dehydration from all of the vomiting and diarrhea. They gave me three prescriptions for the vomiting, diarrhea, and migraines. They also hydrated me intravenously for several hours. I was wheeled out of the hospital and taken home in a cab".

Janice also saw a doctor at emergency care for her disability and was given more medications to take for her disability. Janice described the side-effects from all of the medications as more debilitating than the illness. Additionally, she had to take medication for extreme insomnia. Brian was so traumatized by the move and all of the devastating circumstances surrounding the move that he had to take two types of anti-depressants and an anti-psychotic, when normally he only needed one anti-depressant and the anti-psychotic. He became so severely depressed that during the course of this upsetting move he retrieved a kitchen-knife from a box and cut himself with the knife repeatedly until his hands were bleeding steadily. Janice saw that Brian's hands were cleaned, treated with medication and bandaged. She cried with him and held him in her arms and prayed with him, promising him that they were going to be alright and that they would not be homeless. She also told him that God would give them a home where they would get the help that they needed and that things were going to get much better for them.

Now, Janice and Brian are picking up the pieces of their lives and trying to move forward in a city that they didn't plan to move to, but that they know God took them to. They are in an apartment that is more expensive than they planned on paying for, but they know that things will work out because they have found love and acceptance at their new church and are hopeful. They thank the Lord God of Hosts every day for watching over them, their loved ones and never forget to also pray for Gods peace to be upon Israel, God's chosen. They also thank Him for sending Christians into their lives to help them when others wouldn't. They are especially thankful to Mandy ** at Academy Bank and Mr. ** and his manager for being kind to them even though the outcome of the claim was not correct. Brian is also grateful for the love and compassion that he has found from new friends at church that he has made. He meets with them every Thursday night, Sunday morning and some Saturday afternoons and is doing better.

Both Janice and Brian are praying for all concerned parties in this matter to reimburse them fairly for charges that they should not have incurred, and for them to be merciful in this monetary reimbursement. Janice and Brian incurred over $2,300 more than expected in this move and are in need of monetary relief. Janice had to take out three loans in order to survive the unexpected circumstances in this move. The emotional, mental and physical stress and suffering encountered in this move is hard to calculate. The value and power of prayer cannot be calculated because it is priceless.

I called the guy back on Tuesday 8/19/14, he totally denied his responsibilities. He says that he did not have to call his customer to let them know that his office is closed at 2pm. He says it was my fault that I could not pick up the truck. Not only that but he was very nasty to me and yell at me too. This is not the customer services that I expected from Budget truck. This was my first time using budget truck and it will be my last. I will never go back to you anymore. As I think Uhaul have better customer services, better responsive to emergency situation and more people friendly. So now I found that you guys are charging me for the cancellation fee of $50. Saying that I did not show up! So not only you guys are making me late to my wedding day, costing me more money for rental UHAUL truck and undue stress. I would like to speak to Budget corporate immediately about this issue!

Before 8:00 AM the pickup location owner started calling the Budget Inventory Manager. I got the impression she had been speaking with him several days in advance on my reservation and another, so this call was not a surprise. The local owner tried putting me in a much bigger truck as a local rental instead of a one-way rental. It was too big to get into the driveway and 3X bigger than I needed or could handle.

At 9:32 AM, I elevated it to the 1-800 Customer Service and bottom line they told me I would get a call from the Inventory Manager. At 10:52 AM I called back to Budget Customer Service and requested to speak with a supervisor, she would not pass me on and said I needed to give the Inventory Manager 2 hours to respond. Thought I did since he was notified before 8:00 AM from the local office. At 12:23, I called back to Customer Service and was told they had an entry in their system from the Inventory Manager that there was going to be no truck for me.

I asked to be escalated to a supervisor and he would not. His employee ID is ** he told me. Then he began reading their legal terms and conditions. So, no truck and it was clear for my last call they felt there was no obligation on Budgets part to get me one. My 22 year old daughter can't be moved into her grad apartment (I can't wait to tell her that), I have to put her up in a hotel till I can find her a truck to move her furniture. I wasted one of my vacation days, my wife had to drive 4 hours round trip to pick up the apartment keys and I lost a pre-paid night in the hotel I reserved. What did I do wrong? Think before you book with Budget.....

The next thing we found out was that our truck was not there. The worker said they knew the previous day about this and that we should have received a call (we did not). That same day, we experienced some of the worst customer service we have ever received (and we just got back from living in a 3rd world country for the past two years!). On 4 separate occasions, we were promised a call back from Budget. (3 of those times we were given a 2 hour time frame.) They did not call once.

On the last occasion where we were finally able to talk with a supervisor she promised a call back within a half hour. We waited 45 minutes to call back (because of course, she didn't call us) just to find out she went home for the day. We were promised a phone call this morning at 8am. Fast forward to 9am, we finally call Budget where we were told that "optimistically thinking" we will receive a truck on Monday. Monday! We have utility companies scheduled to arrive Monday and my husband's orientation starts Tuesday. It is not possible for my husband to make it to the first day of orientation.

We are now trying to find a plan B. All rental companies in our area are booked through Monday or else we would take our money elsewhere. We have negotiated a price IF Budget gets our truck to us on Monday. The negotiated price is UNSATISFACTORY.

At this point, we have to borrow a car so my husband can drive up early. In addition, a family member has to take two vacation days to drive the moving truck with me so that way someone can return the borrowed car. (This is our best option. ) We are 100% APPALLED at the customer service we have received and think it is unbelievable that our truck is not free. Once you add up the vacation time that someone has to take and the mileage we will have to pay on the borrowed car (it will be over 1000 miles), we will be losing money on this. Not to mention that my husband will have to sleep on a floor and order food until I can get there with our belongings.

I am going to continue posting this on my social media outlets to warn my friends and family about this issue. I shake my head at you, Budget.

After 2 hours and 15 minutes, I called back. They said "oh, this should have been taken care of. Now, it goes directly to a manager to help you. Stay by your phone, they will call within a few minutes." 30 minutes later, I call back. They say "Budget can accommodate you with a truck on Tuesday at the same price, but we have no trucks until then." This was Saturday. Customer care could have cared less that we were sitting on our fully packed up apartment with people waiting to help load a truck that we reserved but they didn't have available.

We called Penske, they hooked us up with a truck (we had to drive from Berkeley to San Francisco to get it) and their customer care was fabulous. Our move was postponed 4 hours because of Budget and their poor service. I have never used their rental trucks, but the company we own rents cars from them weekly. They have lost our business entirely and I suggest anybody looking for good service, go elsewhere. Budget should be ashamed to run a business as they do.

The actual truck rental turned out to be no better than the reservation process. When I arrived to pick up the truck, the rental agent was anxious to get the transaction completed and close up for the weekend so I signed the paperwork, took the keys and went out to the truck. Before I even got into the truck the rental agent was long gone and when I opened the truck door, the first thing I noticed was the gas pedal was missing.... that’s right, MISSING. At that point I had no option but to drive away in this rolling wreck of a truck. The suspension was gone from this beast long ago, in fact I could shake it sideways without much effort. I could see this was going to be the trip from hell.

I called Budget Customer Service the next morning to see what could be done. The customer service rep was very confrontational, as if I needed that on top of my current problems. He directed me to Roadside Service where I needed to coordinate a location along my route to have them come and install a new gas pedal. I drove the truck 250 miles without the pedal, not particularly bright but I had no choice as I had a schedule that had to be met. My recommendation for anyone needing a truck rental would be: Budget Truck Rental Should Be Your Last Resort.

Problem was, I needed to drive another 75 miles to drop off the truck in Joplin, MO, the supposed nearest check-in point for Budget. I had never been there and didn't want to be late dropping it off by 8 am, so we left at 10 pm instead. I figured we would be there by 11:30pm at the latest and could fill the truck and drop it off. So I had my car attached exactly as I did in Denver and we proceeded. 15 miles into the trip, someone was honking and waving at me from a passing car. They pointed and shouted. I looked back and sparks were flying off the pavement in the mirror, so I pulled over. I thought maybe a chain was dragging. But the chains were the only things holding my car onto the towing dolly.

The tire wraps had come completely off both front tires and the car was back a full two feet from where I had parked it. The ramps of the dolly were dragging on the pavement, producing the sparks. I repositioned the car, strapped it back in, tightened all the belts, wraps and levers, put the pins in position and slowly began driving again towards Joplin. About 20 minutes goes by, and the same thing happens again. More people honking, but I was already aware and pulling over under a streetlight at a farmhouse/ranch. Again the chains were the only thing keeping my car on the dolly as the entire apparatus had come loose and the ramps were sparking once more. So I spent 30 minutes fixing it YET AGAIN.

This time I was even more thorough and triple checked the procedure as the man at Budget rentals had shown me to do. I had everything set just right, nice and tight. Now it is midnight and we've only made it a little over 30 miles. A little while later, we are going through the tiny town of Oswego, KS when the same malfunction strikes. I pull over under a streetlamp and try to figure out what to do. Obviously there is something wrong with the dolly and I cannot figure it out. I did everything I had done before and it had made it 700 miles no problem. Now I am stuck in the dark, in the middle of nowhere in a town without even an open gas station after midnight with my child. After riffling through my paperwork, I realized I had left the roadside assistance number at home, which fortunately was only about 40-45 miles away. So I unhooked my car, hid the key to the truck in the console, left the doors unlocked and drove home, retrieved the number they had given me in case of emergency and argued with them over what was the best course of action.

BUDGET'S ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO. They transferred me to 2-3 different people, each of whom argued with me until 4 am over why I had "abandoned" their vehicle/dolly. I offered to meet them in Oswego in the morning and they could reattach everything for me or one of us could drive my car and the other my rental truck, but my daughter could not drive a stick-shift yet, nor did she have a driver's license, only a permit, so I could not legally leave her in the car alone. They said they would call a manager and get back to me. I waited until 4:30, when some man called and told me "not to worry about it, they would take care of everything". After all, I had paid for 2 Million in coverage right and the vehicle was empty and in a small, sleepy town where nothing could happen to it. So I told them about the key and hung up.

They sent a tow truck from Budget in Coffeyville, which is only 12 miles from Independence! Why couldn't I have just dropped off truck/dolly in Coffeyville and avoided being stranded in the middle of nowhere in the first place?! PLUS, THE TRUCK DID NOT NEED TO BE TOWED, ONLY DRIVEN. Yet, they said they would take care of it. Then they sent me a BILL for $412.00, the cost of the tow. The letter stated, "If you agree with these charges pay this amount". Well, I DO NOT AGREE WITH THE CHARGES! So I e-mailed them stating my case. They sent for the phone calls for review and I truly believed that would be the end of it. The calls clearly proved their equipment had broken down on me 3 times in the middle of the night!

But not to them. They believe I lied, made the whole thing up. Those people who waved me down, were all imaginary, because I did not pull them over to get their names and phone numbers. Budget believes that after driving all that way from Denver, unloading my stuff, reconnecting the car and making sure it got returned early, I just threw up my hands at 1:30 am and parked it, for no reason whatsoever. They first claimed there was damage to the dolly, which I said is covered by the Insurance I paid. Then they said there was no damage, the dolly is fine and has been rented out many times since with no problems, but I still owe them for the unnecessary tow. So which is it Budget?

Now I'm being threatened with lawyer fees, court costs and the whole shebang, though everyone I have spoken to, over 100 people on FaceBook said, "Don't pay them an ** dime! They stranded you, not the other way around!" Plus I am threatened with being put on the Do Not Rent List, making it impossible to rent a car or truck from anyone, presumably. Well, I hope this costs you far more than it does me Budget and I hope your company ends up on the DO NOT RENT FROM LIST.

After explaining to Budget it's getting late (8:40 p.m.), the weather was bad and we were NOT in a safe location & we needed to get to a hotel, they told us to wait another 2 hours for a tow. Because our safety was a concern, we took our car off of car carrier and drove my car and Budget moving truck to nearest hotel for the night. Susan from emergency services told us we abandoned to car carrier and would be liable. I explained, I felt unsafe, it was late, the weather was bad and we wanted to get to a safe and dry place.

The next day, customer service told me to look for a Budget rental place that has a car carrier between Gainesville and Orlando. No one assisted us - as we now had to drive my car (not equipped to drive long distances) and the rental truck. I left my car at a friend's house (over 2 hours were I originally wanted it to be. Budget appeared not to care due to NO contact until 2:24 pm July 12 to tell us they located a car carrier. At this time we had just arrived at the storage place to unpack the truck and we were not in position to pay for even more gas to drive back 2 more hours to get my car and drive back. I was told Budget can't do anything about my gas issue.

Later that afternoon I was rushed to St. Lucie Medical Center under the stress of this entire situation. On July 13, I called Budget to see if the rental can be extended so I will have time to go for this long drive to get my car - although we had spent considerable amount of money on gas, hotel, eating, all due to faulty equipment rented to us. I was driven to my mother's home in Miami (it was not in the budget for us to stay another night at a hotel in Port Saint Lucie) to rest and prepare to possibly go get my car the next day.

I was told July 13, I could not extend without charge. So I decided to return the truck to a location in Miami. I was told I would be charged a drop-off fee because the locations changed and I possibly would not get any refunds on all expenses incurred on food, extra gas, hotel and faulty equipment (car carrier) because I left the trailer, which in fact I was on the phone with Susan as she spoke with the tow person who was present at that very moment picking up the trailer.

Also, due to the fact that I was delayed the first time (bent chain on July 10) and then another time (faulty car carrier on July 11), I was not able to pick up my children as planned and attend an inspection for a house I am purchasing. This entire ordeal has been turned around by Budget and they simply don't care about my safety (along with the safety of all others on the highway I traveled among), finances, family and time. I now have to pay an auto transport company to get my car from the Orlando area and I have no form of transportation. I also have incurred new medical bills due to being rushed to the hospital after all of this.

The truck was much too big for what we needed for a one-bedroom home and we only filled 50% of it up. We strapped everything down so it wouldn't slide during the move, but I was still worried. The diesel fuel cost much more than we had budgeted for too. We left Albuquerque heading to Arizona on June the 2nd. Halfway to Phoenix, in a small town called Holbrook, the truck started acting weird. The battery light would start blinking and making a buzzing noise and then the truck would shut itself off. This happened three times while we were on the highway! Finally we pulled over about 20 miles outside of Holbrook and called the roadside assistance. The person who answered was neither friendly nor helpful. She told us we had to first get somewhere where we could give them an address so we turned and drove back to a gas station in Holbrook.

When we called back we got a different roadside service representative, who also was unfriendly and unapologetic that this was happening. He said a technician would be along shortly. The technician arrived very promptly, and was friendly but said the truck had an electrical issue. He also told us this truck should have never been rented out in the condition it was in. Because it was 5 o'clock, he couldn't bring it to the shop to repair it until the next day and told us to call Budget back to have them send a replacement truck. We promptly called Budget who then said they couldn't do anything until they talked to the technician, who had left. We didn't even know the name of the shop he worked at!

Finally we found the number and called his mechanic shop, who luckily answered and told them to call Budget. We then waited an hour to hear from Budget, but after hearing nothing called them back. Keep in mind, we are in Arizona, with two dogs in 100 degree heat waiting for all of this to get sorted out. When we called back we got yet another representative who told us they couldn't send a replacement truck because the inventory office on the east coast was already closed and that we had to find a room for the night. I said that we hadn't budgeted for that and she told me we could be compensated for it. We had to call 5 different hotels before we finally found one that would accept dogs.

The next day, we called Budget yet again getting a different, unapologetic representative. They told us there were no available trucks to send and they would have to tow (!) our broken trucks the next 4 hours to Phoenix. We had to check out of the hotel and wait in the parking lot for two more hours until the tow truck finally arrived. The driver was friendly but he had to hitch the truck at an angle and several things that I had packed safely for a flat drive, not a tilted one, broke from the angle (Which I discovered later). We arrived in Phoenix a day late and my boyfriend had to go straight to work. Instead of unpacking the truck with his help after the sun had gone down, as we had carefully planned, I was forced to unload it mostly by myself in 110 degree heat because Budget gave us only one day to unload and wanted the truck back the day after they towed it there.

I am greatly disappointed and angry about this whole situation. Not only were we given a truck I feel hadn't met inspection, we had to deal with delays and several unfriendly and unhelpful employees. If they had immediately called to find us a replacement truck, the east coast office would have been open still and we wouldn't have been a day late on schedule. Also, I am disappointed that I received the wrong size truck to begin with, causing the breaking of some furniture and sentimental items. I suffered heat stroke from waiting 5 hours at a gas station outside, and the unloading of the truck. The gas cost of the truck (which we had just filled up in Holbrook before it broke) and the hotel costs also put us behind. I have never been so unhappy with a company and so angry at the way the whole thing was handled. Even a small, "I'm sorry this is happening, let me see what I can do to fix it" from your employees would have gone a long way. Only one lady told me she was sorry, and that was after I broke down on the phone with her.

I will NEVER use budget truck, and you shouldn't either. Save yourself some time and frustration and just go to Uhaul. At least THEY are decent people with GOOD customer service which will be more than anyone will ever be able to say about Budget Truck.

I loaded household items and used about 30% of the truck capacity. I drove to Fort Worth, TX which is about 60 miles away. It was so hot and only hot air coming out of AC. I was so wet all the way. Next morning I filled up gas tank and returned the truck to Vegas Rentals LLC in Fort Worth. The lady on duty asked me for the key of truck so I handed it to her. She came back and said there was big damage on the roof. I told her when I walked around with service people in Plano, I could not see roof so I did not know what was the condition of roof. She asked me if I had Vehicle Damage Report so I gave her all documents I had. She said there was no marking of damage on the roof in report so I was responsible for the big damage on roof. I told her again that I could not even able to see roof when I got the truck. She called Taylor Rentals in Plano and asked about the big damage on the roof. Taylor Rentals called her back and acknowledged roof damage was there before I got the truck. To rent a poorly maintained truck from Budget Truck Rental is scary.

She was very rude lacking in customer service manner, said that I was lying. My husband then called and talked to her to explain we had the gas receipt to show we put 50.00 to fill it up and she totally did not care and said we could fax anything we wanted but the charge was going to stay. My husband told her he was going to file a complaint with Budget corporate and she said go ahead. He told her we would not rent from budget again and she said she didn't care. Very rude and impolite. DO NOT RENT FROM BUDGET AND DROP IT OFF IN NEWBURGH NY, especially after hours. She probably filled her own personal tank with my money.

The trouble started BEFORE I even left my yard. Flat tire on hauler.... Told roadside service would take three hours or more. So I hired on my own Dime a service to come out and fill the tire up. They did. Well....13.8 miles from there we had a blow out on the hauler! We were left on the side of the highway for seven hours. Roadside showed up and said that the trailer should be replaced because of a bent axle. Their own tech took pictures of the damage and even forwarded them to me, as well as Budget. We were told that they would "Coordinate" a trailer switch along our way. They replaced TWO TIRES on the hauler....both of which leaked air and made us stop about every hour to air them up. Three cans of Semi TRUCK 'fix-a-flat' did nothing. Finally one of the "NEW" tires gave out less than half way through my trip...already delayed by ten hours.

We got road side assistance back on the phone and was blamed for their faulty equipment. A man named 'Rob' told us that because we had pillows and blankets in the car that we damaged the hauler! These haulers are designed to carry full size SUV's....but a Mazda 6 with pillows in it is a no no!!! I was told to pull off the road and to get the nearest hotel. It took an additional 28 hours to get a substitute hauler delivered to me!!! This put me behind schedule two full days...and cost me an additional two nights stays at hotels...that accept 175lb dogs....not cheap or easy to find.

I rented the whole unit for six days.... After ALL of the ** and lousy service I still had the truck returned on time. I held up my end of the deal. I was called names, by this "Rob", I was blamed by this person and was told that I was being recorded... I was swearing, as I should have been. What "Rob" doesn't know is I saved his voice mail, he sent me when he saw the photos his own tech took of the car hauler that should have never been rented to me in the first place. "Rob" said..."you are right, the trailer was bad". NO APOLOGY!!!

All the pictures receipts and more evidence of extra expenses were all forwarded to customer service for a refund...at least. I was told because I paid with cash that it would take 21 days to get a check. They lied one more time! Seems that they have no clue as to who I even am now. We'll see if my Lawyer jogs their memories a little bit when I sue them for ten times the damages now.

Bottom line is Budget Truck rental is the absolute worst truck rental to use. Spend the extra money and rent a Penske.

I will have my satisfaction and they will pay up. Just sucks that a lawyer will get a third of it and now it'll take months longer. The company should have been true to their word and paid up. They should have given me a full refund. Now they'll give me a full refund X's 10! This is a NO LOSE case. We saved every picture and every phone conversation.

Budget sucks. AVOID AT ALL COST!!!

Not only was the venue in Baton Rouge INCREDIBLY hard to find because there is no Crowe Peele Texaco as they advertise and there is NO SIGNS that says Budget truck. But once I got there the price jumped to $690 and the order was not fulfilled. The local guy was happy to take my money BEFORE telling me he could not fulfill my reservation. I have a bad knee so I knew it would not be possible to pack the truck without a hand truck so I was very upset to learn that this Budget venue NEVER has hand trucks. They just do not carry them at that location. Yet the DAY BEFORE the lady told me it was on my reservation and no problem. So considering I felt I had been lied to - I called Budget who played the pass the blame game. Sales tells you they cannot do anything, only customer service can. Customer service tells you that they have no access to what sales told you. Then I got the bombs.

"MA'AM WE GUARANTEE NOTHING BUT THE TRUCK." Yet NO ONE told me this. "SORRY - WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING TO HELP YOU, YOU ALREADY PAID SO IT IS TOO LATE" Oh? I'm sorry - too late for customer service because the guy at the store rushed me into paying before giving me the contract or telling me the order was not going to be fulfilled? "MA'AM I NEED TO ASK YOU TO NOT BE SO UPSET OR I WILL TERMINATE THE CALL." Excuse me? Due to the fact you LIED to me and are playing pass the blame game around your company, you are going to hang up on me?

The local vendor informed it that I should have called him to confirm my reservation but I had no idea how to contact the local vendor, and I had no idea I NEEDED to do that. I assumed this was a company I could trust and I was WRONG. He ultimately called around and found a hand truck that I could drive to the next city and get. Let's add - they have NO desire to help you and tell you it is a liability to help you with the car tow. So do not expect any assistance.

I asked to have them send me my recorded conversations, which they NEVER did. I thought the nightmare had ended. I got to my destination and went to drop the truck off. The vendor I dropped it off at told me they did not regularly accept car tows so they made me park the car tow for them and absolutely REFUSED to do ANYTHING to help. I would NEVER EVER recommend Budget to ANYONE, and I felt it my duty to share this review in hopes that NO ONE else EVER feels the deceit, lies, rude customer service, and shaming that I experienced using this company. This was the WORST customer service I have ever experienced in my entire life. Please, please - if you want ANYTHING more than a company willing to take your money, DO NOT USE BUDGET TRUCKS!!

I asked to speak to a manager and they kept shifting me from one customer service rep to another. Finally they told me that I might not be contacted for 3-5 business days by a manager....again, REALLY???? Finally, I asked if they would reimburse me for the extra money I was going to have to spend for a last minute rental and all they said was that I could submit my bill and they would review it. No apology, no guarantee of reimbursement, nothing at all!! I ended up getting a U-haul and it cost me less in the end anyway than I would have spent with Budget. Don't waste your time with these idiots. They are rude, unorganized and terrible at everything customer oriented. Stay away! !

Horrible customer service. They do not care one bit what happens. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. It cost me a fortune to learn this. I am going home today without my items. They offered me $50.00 for my trouble. I do believe that is admitting to guilt! DO NOT EVER RESERVE OR RENT A TRUCK FROM THIS COMPANY.

Not more than 2 minutes later, an inventory manager did in fact call me and ask if I would be willing to take a 16' truck instead of a 10'. I said yes, somewhat overwhelmed by how nice they were being. I asked when would the truck be ready and he stated, "Right now". I told him it would take about 30-45 minutes for me to get down but I was on my way. I arrived at the Austin location at about 10:40 AM and waited for a line of people for about 15 minutes. When I got to the head of the line, I was talking to Derrick from the night before. I explained to Derrick that I had called Customer Service that morning and then talked with the inventory manager and what he had said. The response from Derrick was "I got no truck for you".

Needless to say, I was angry and I left. So after cooling down just a little, I called Customer Service and again stated that I would work with an inventory manager who would call me back within two hours. About 45 minutes later, another inventory manager called back and was offering me a truck but only if I would go back to Derrick. I refused on the grounds that fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Then he told me that if I would not go back to Derrick that there was not a truck within 150 miles. I told him to cancel the order.

Now I found a truck with U-Haul later in the day and the way that happened was not only enjoyable but they were extremely proficient (not incompetent business people). I called the nearest location to my house and talked to Brad after reserving a truck online. He had no trucks at all that were not being rented but told me he would find a truck and call me back (how refreshing that he did not expect me to call all over the place!). He called me back about two hours later with instructions on where to go to pick up the truck (he had found one at a different location than his). I went and rented the truck and drove away. That was a great experience but not one you will ever find dealing with the Austin, Texas Budget Truck Rental location (at the least) with Derrick.

3nd - the same day I picked up truck it broke down?? This truck could have blown up!! Noticed fuel gauge - fuel meter dropping too fast?? - it was raining the day of this move. 1st trip/2nd trip of the move - not raining, but noticed smoke coming from truck. Pulled over - diesel fuel all over truck, driver's side, fuel tank, and engine compartment. Started truck to find leak. Truck shooting diesel fuel out of filter lid - call local rental office - 5:05 pm closed. Called Budget customer service. They said I will get a call from field service member - mechanic called me for address @ 6:15pm. Arrived @ 6:45pm. Told me he had to replace filter - left scene and picked-up new filter and installed. I was worried about driving the truck covered in diesel fuel. Mechanic said it was safe? I asked mechanic - how much fuel does he think was all over the truck - he said about 5 gallons. I said at least + what leaked all over the road!! Back on road @ 8:15pm, arrived at new home. Diesel fuel all over driveway!!

4th - drove truck late next day, instrument panel lights - not working?? Lights would flicker on and off?? Truck cab lights also do not work. 5th - called to extend time/ use of truck. Filled truck to make another move. HUD did not complete the closing on scheduled closing date - delayed move into new house for 10 days. I called Budget to extend rental and they told me to contact local rental office to inform them. I called and left another message. They never called me from when truck broke down 3 days before?

6th - I hose and washed truck, front and underside try to rinse off diesel fuel still on truck. Upon arrival and removal of furniture, noticed diesel fuel on new house driveway!! 7th - I returned truck to local rental center - asked them if they received my calls. They said yes. I asked, "Why didn't anyone return my call?" - They had no answer - I disputed the rates again - They said that it is no them - It is Budget - complain to them. I also informed them of the mechanical problems with this truck. They said they would take truck out of service so they can work on it.

8th - I asked if I could charge truck on another credit card - they tried, but was unable to change the credit card on file. I said you do not need to change the one on file, just charge another card for the rental - They said they could not do that. Net - 1st and last time I will rent a Budget truck. I request a full refund for the false ad which led to the rental. If you quote a price and sent it via email, I have documented proof of the rate - yet you refuse to abide by, this is criminal. Next to rent faulty equipment - that could have ended in a major fire, or even killed someone is crazy. I have pictures and can post on internet to advise customers not to rent your equipment in the future. It will cost you far less, to refund my rental, or suffer the negative media you will receive. I hope you will contact me via reply or call my cell **. Thank you.

I will never again rent from Budget (and I have used them in the past), and will tell everyone I know to avoid them, especially in Orland Park. I would like to know if others have had a similar experience, since I am considering contacting the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney to see if this is a pattern.

The next size up was a 16 foot truck which gave us nearly twice the area required to move our item. After complaining about the fuel differential cost for the 1,100 mile drive, we were told that a 10 foot truck was available at another location and we could go pick it up there. This was unacceptably inconvenient and we asked if the truck was available, why did they not have it at the location of our reservation? No answer was given.

Because we had movers waiting to load our items, we were forced to take the 16 footer. The end result was that we spent anywhere from 25% to 30% more in gas that had the 10 foot truck been available as promised. This amounted to no less than $100 in additional cost. I found Budget to be less than customer service oriented and recommend anyone considering Budget Truck Rental do so understanding, that they may not get the service or equipment they expect.

I called customer care and they transferred the call to Budget's "inventory control" department where I spoke with Perry. After explaining my situation and urgency, Perry only solution was to drive over an hour and a half away to pick up a truck that wasn't even the size I ordered. I asked if there was anything closer than 1.5 hours...then Perry got upset at me and told me that was his only solution; that was the only truck available; and he has nothing else to say about the matter!!! (I live in Raleigh NC, but Perry wanted me to pickup the truck in Fayetteville, NC!!!)

I put my hope and trust on a big name brand like "Budget" only to be let down and rudely left without any alternative. I took the time to write this in hope of helping someone else avoid putting their trust in Budget truck rental. They cannot continue to get away with this level of poor service and business etiquette. All is well, only while all is well. The moment the going gets tough... Budget truck rental is not reliable... They abandoned me when I was really depending on them.

A month later, I received the statement from my credit card and there was an additional charge besides rental fee. I called Budget and they said since I returned the truck to a different location, they charged a drop-off fee. I called Budget to file a complaint but they bounced me from department to department. The final answer was that since I signed the multi-paged contract at the Budget place when I picked up the truck and there was a fine-print that mentioned "drop-off fee applied", I must have agreed to pay for that.

I am angry at Budget because they intentionally deceive consumers by hiding fees upfront and buried them in the fine-prints of the contracts. Even when I asked several agents before I booked the truck if there was any other fees, they verbally said no. And when I complained, no one in Budget took responsibility to right their wrong. My recommendation: Do Not rent from Budget.

I was supposed to be charged for approx. 15 miles and estimate at $110 for the one day rental. I dropped the keys in the overnight box assuming I would get my charge at the approx. amount of $110. However, it has been about 2 - 3 weeks and I was charged $270+. It took me this time to connect with budget which has recorded my mileage at about 100+ miles resulting in the cost difference.

Now, Budget's policy is to have the burden of proof with the customer. There is no formal complaint department except through customer support who says that without proof, the location is entitled to profit by lying and stealing from customers unless the customer keeps meticulous records. So much for customer service. BTW - the person who completed the contract for rental was assigned for the day from the paramus office so they are apparently linked.

I went there earlier today during their posted office along with other day/times and the location was closed. I met another guy there this morning who actually had an appointment for pickup and the door was closed. Obviously, we both called but no answer. I just read the other review for these guys and they it is the same location(s) and issue (lie and cheating). DON'T RENT FROM THE FORT LEE OR PARAMUS BUDGET LOCATIONS, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE RIPPED OFF LIKE ME.

I normally don't post online reviews but these guys are real crooks and need to be exposed for the liars and cheats they are. Don't think that customer support can help because they cannot and will not. Keep meticulous records AND DON'T TRUST THIS COMPANY AND LEAVE THE KEYS IN THE OVERNIGHT SLOT. Make sure you return to a person and get the final receipt with correct charges. OTHERWISE, THEY WILL LIE AND OVERCHARGE YOU.

03 10 2014 UPDATE: It look a few days coordinating with the Paramus office because the Fort Lee office was not open during their advertised times Sat and Sun. After multiple calls through the Paramus office because ** was initial not picking up my calls, it started picking up my calls. However, he agreed to call or text me when he was in the office today to discuss my transaction. He never called. When I called him, his excuse is that he forgot his phone. I will try again this week or weekend depending on work schedules because he have not yet provided details of the transaction for which they are charging.

03 16 2014 UPDATE: Its been another week, but I connected this morning. Although the Paramus office gave me this person's information as the manager, he says that he is simply an employee. He cannot show me the current mileage of the truck as physical evidence that there was not a typo in the odometer readings without me wanting to rent the truck. After I asked, show me the truck to consider it, he then says it is not on the premises.

Interesting that another man just showed up at the same time and just happened to stand around as if he was the manager or owner. He started to interject himself into my conversation trying like a manager. When I asked if he was the manager or owner, he said he was not but just kept at it.

These guys definitely have a SCAM going on. I asked for evidence of direct rental, it turns out that there was a day between my truck return and the next truck rental to which they claim no use of the truck. Funny, because the guy who rented it to me clearly said I needed to return on time or face penalty because there was a rental the day of my return. THESE GUYS ARE LIARS. DON'T TRUST AND SAVE YOURSELF MY GRIEF AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!

I called at 1:00pm to let her know I was running late but just a few minutes away. Patti said "no problem". I arrived at 1:10pm and was greeted by Patti at the counter. She asked for my name and after giving it to her, reminding her that I just spoke to her on the phone 5 minutes earlier, Patti at the counter asked if I was there for the van, I said, "Yes".

"You're here for the van rental through Avis, right?" I said "No, Budget". Then looking at her screen, she then said she "now understands the confusion, there are two (2) Suzannes". She then informed me that there were no cargo van rentals through that Budget location until the end of the month, only a regular van rental through Avis car rental which would be $150 a day at which I balked and let her know it was not an option.

I asked why the online reservation I made showed a cargo van available? She said she "didn't know" (which is what she said last time when I asked how I could make a van reservation to pick up at 4pm just to arrive and be told by her that they were already closed and lucky they were still there?). She informed me that she DID try to reach me twice by phone, once yesterday and then again this morning to let me know there were no vans available. She confirmed my cell number and I informed her that it is my catch all Google number that is supposed to forward to my cell and that it must not have. I asked if she left a message, she said yes. I then inquired as to why this is the third time I have attempted to rent a van at this location and although it always shows available, it never is... She said it is because there is only one in their fleet and a business is using it.

I then asked if there was a small truck available for the same price, she looked at the screen and said there was a "10 foot truck available, same as last time at the rate of $26.95 a day, 99 cents a mile". I asked her if since I once again, came down to their location for a van and and am now am getting a truck... for the SECOND TIME, (Res Ref # **) if I could get it for the same rate as the van? She gestured to her screen and said there is "nothing she could do" to change the rate on the computer, that is what it showed. So I asked if I really had to now leave and go to a Starbucks or back home to go online yet again and make another reservation and come all the way back to get the online rate and waste time when they could just give me the same rate?

She then left the counter and went through a doorway into an office behind her that I now understand, is the owner/manager's who had apparently had been there the whole time, able to hear this going on and did not come out to help with the situation. Disgusted and let down by this location once again by this Budget Franchise location... I said I would just go to another location and left the office.

The more I thought about it, I called the Budget Franchise location back to ask, since I had spoken to Patti on the phone in the morning, and then on the way to her, why she did not mention that she had no vans available on the phone??? The person who answered the phone was **, the unavailable Owner/Manager in the office, who immediately informed me that they had decided that they were going to give me the same rate on a truck now and that they were going to tell me but I left the office suddenly and if I came back they could accommodate me on the rate.

I said that yes, I did leave the office suddenly and explained that I would either just make a reservation for another location who had a van available... or just make a new clean reservation for a 10-foot truck online at their location online, thus avoiding any confusion and also so they don't have to go out of their way for me changing the rate and so forth and so on. I then put the million dollar question to him about why Patti did not mention the van not being available over the phone to me and he let me know in a patronizing way that it was because of the "confusion of the 'Suzannes!'..." (pronounced just like I formatted it) like the confusion is a normal business modus operandi.

I took the opportunity to point out that this type of "confusion" constantly happens at this Budget location, such as confusion about daily insurance charges, van availability, van available but it is all the way in the back 'cause they are already closed and lucky I got them before they left even though the reservation online showed 4pm, and so forth. I said I would just make a new reservation online and we ended the conversation.

I called ** right back to ask one more question which dawned on me about the non-stop poor performance of this Budget location... "Why did she say that there was nothing she could do about the rate on the 10-foot truck when she could have just asked him in the first place before just automatically saying that since they ended up offering the van rate for the truck anyhow?" The Owner and Manager of this Budget Truck Rental location replied... "You know Susan, there are other Budget locations you can go to like Palm Desert that I think you should go to from now on, we obviously cannot make you happy! I think it's better if you go there from now on!" Wow. I replied that as a repeat customer who constantly got the run-around that it was a VALID question and that as a business owner he should be able to answer it without getting rude, told him where to go and hung up.

IN REVIEW: I do not appreciate the unprofessional manner in which I have been treated the past couple of times I have rented from this Budget location in Palm Springs... my time apparently not valued at all, wasted by useless miscommunication again and again at my expense that could easily be avoided, and then to top it all off... being rudely told by the owner that I can go elsewhere with my business when I have valid questions regarding my experience with them just because I have the nerve to ask them! NOT good customer service or community public relations.

And in the past... being patronizingly called "ma'am" extensively 5 or 6 times within a 3 sentence statement by Patti regarding a question on my final truck rental charges until I had to finally remind her of my name and request that she call me by it... only to be told that there was no one there above her to help me with it and that once again... they were closing! (This was supposed to be a VAN but wasn't because they didn't want to have to move trucks in front of it to pull it out as they were closed and instead offered me a truck at the same rate... hmm... they could immediately do it then why was this time handled differently?!)

You know, the first time I rented from this location it was a good experience, they were new and had just opened and I looked forward to establishing a good relationship with this franchise and be a happy, repeat local customer, utilizing them and Avis as well in the future as I had even discussed this briefly with the manager back in December regarding renting an Avis car in the near future for business on an ongoing basis.

When we finally reached our destination I did research and the finding was it was the wrong dolly and it should have never been rented to me in its condition. I really wish I had gone with my gut feeling before leaving the lot in Seattle. I am relieved my family and I were able to arrive safe, however, I do not think it is fair. I paid money for the wrong equipment that nearly killed us. We should never have been rented that dolly. I took pictures of the dolly and can supply them to you and I'm sure you will agree we were taken.....

When we arrived at the Miami Budget location, the agent said our reservation had been cancelled. I asked him if he was the one who had spoken with the agent from Pembroke Pines and he said yes, but the reservation was cancelled. After a while, he was able to pull up the reservation which now had a different, higher rate than the original rate we reserved. After another long wait, the agent was able to honor and confirm the reservation at the original rate that we had reserved. We were already behind on our schedule because of all of the miscommunication between the Budget agents.

When we finally got the truck, we were behind on our schedule and I quickly took some pictures of the truck as there were scratches and patches all over the truck. We were rushed off because the truck was blocking other cars. We realized we hadn't taken pictures of the truck from all angles so at one of our stops, we took some additional pictures of the truck. It is so obvious that the truck already had patches and damage on it prior to our pick up and it's documented in the pictures I took. The pictures I took show how the truck obviously had been patched up.

I made the reservation for 9am (Sunday morning) so that we would have enough time to use the truck and return it during office hours since they close earlier on Sundays. Had everything gone as scheduled, we would have been able to return the truck while the office was still open. But due to all of the delays and confusion with our reservation, we had to return the truck and drop the keys in a drop box after the office had closed. A few days later I received a charge for a $50 no show of our reservation. I contacted Budget's customer service and they refunded the $50. Okay, done deal right? Not so!

Over a month later, I received an email from Cheryl **, Physical Damage Budget Truck Examiner, with a claim for $3360.90 worth of damage. I replied to Cheryl that I had taken pictures of the truck that we rented and emailed her the pictures. Again, the pictures I took of the truck we rented already had the damage/patches on it. Her response was that the pictures that I sent her were taken a couple of hours after the truck was picked up. Her response was that there was no additional review needed and that I had signed off on the contract... NOTE: You will be charged for any damage that is not marked as pre-existing on this form. She also noted: "This damage noticeable as indicated in the photos and would have easily been identified during the pick-up walk around process." Well, obviously the Budget employee did not do his job by documenting everything. We noticed it and took pictures of it.

I don't understand how they can claim that we did the damage when it is clearly on the pictures that we took of the truck. To make this even more interesting, the labor being charged is $2601.50 and the actual paint/parts is $759.40. The name of the body shop that did the repairs is named Crony Body Works, Inc in Miami. I am not going to let Budget get off easy by running this through my insurance company as they suggest. We did not do the claimed damage and they are refusing to acknowledge what is on the pictures we provided.

Seems like a complete scam.

I asked why they allowed the reservation to be made if there were no trucks available. That is the purpose of a reservation in the first place. I demanded some kind of satisfaction, but all I got was offered a $25 for the truck on Monday. Unfortunately, even "IF" I could wait until Monday, $25 was not nearly enough to fix the problem. Luckily U-Haul saved the day for me with a 20' truck (vs Budget's 16' truck) and at a savings of $15 over the shorter truck at Budget, including miles. I think that in a situation such as this, Budget should be held financially liable for damages due to breaking reservation without reasonable warning.

A lady called and without any empathy told me that I have only two options: First to pick up the truck from another location that was hours away from my place and Second, to cancel the reservation. I got screwed. She even declined to reimburse for the movers who charged me hourly basis. My whole day and plan was ruined, not to mention the money I had to pay the movers.

The Budget supplied movers were unable to properly load the truck and can't fit all my stuff. They say there is nothing more they will do. They leave. So at 10 pm at night, I leave my lawnmower, Christmas tree, patio table, futon mattress and frame, a wood bed frame, and a big metal fan on the curb, put as much of my stuff in the front seat as will fit, and start driving to Minnesota from Denver. Turns out that Budget didn't put any cold weather additive in the diesel fuel and the engine block froze on the first truck. They were considering towing, thawing, and then repairing the first one for me to drive. I had already been waiting 24 hours and an 80 dollar hotel room before they suggested this.

They came to their senses and went with a replacement truck but I was delayed 31 hours from the time I intended to leave and actually did leave. The movers from Budget also damaged or scratched most everything that they did fit on the truck, broken dishes. Gorillas would have done nicer job. I called the Clarks Rental on Osage in Denver and the counter man said he shouldn't have rented me the truck in cold weather and that I should have waited for warmer weather to move. He said it was cold in MN and I shouldn't move there this time of year. He made many jokes and laughed and thought my problems were funny and I was stupid. I spoke to many reps at Budget. One woman asked why I didn't just return the truck!?!? I said mainly because it wouldn't start or run. She then hung up on me.

Budget has a Roadside 800 number and a customer service 800 number so that when customers have a problem, they can play against each other and continuously tell you that's a call for the other 800 number. No straight answers. Spoke to two supervisors who couldn't even feign interest. Lodged complaints against the original rental place, Clarks, and the move team they sent me. Complete and total epic fail, Budget. I asked about a refund and they have a policy to not talk about any reimbursement until the rental is complete. They said it wouldn't come to more than a percentage of the original rental fee. So I paid 1200 dollars and Budget will determine if I am to be compensated anything and how much and when.

Along with my stuff, I left the Budget rental hand truck in the back of the broke down Budget truck in Denver as it wouldn't fit. They may charge me for not returning it with the truck. I have many pictures of stuff I was forced to leave behind, the rented dolly in the back of the broke down truck. I am returning the truck on time, incredibly, after I drove overnight from 10 pm Friday to Saturday evening into Minneapolis. Lost a night of sleep while driving. I am ready to go to war with Budget. Do I need a lawyer???

I also had to book a last minute flight to Los Angeles (for $215) to be there in time for a family commitment. The agent apologized, but told me that there was nothing she could do. It seems to me that even a modest gesture, e.g., in the form of a credit on my next rental, would have shown that that the company does care about customer satisfaction and regrets the cost and inconvenience caused to me by its failure to provide a correctly functioning online reservation system. If I had known that the location was closed, I could have picked up the truck on the previous day with minor inconvenience (I live downtown San Francisco, where parking is a problem).

We sat on the side of the road with our 5 month old daughter at the time considering this was 2 months ago. Since the tire didn't get fixed until almost 1 am, we had to get a hotel and leave at 6 am in the morning because we had people waiting for us to help unload the truck at noon. This is a 9 hr drive mind you, so we weren't going to make it there already at noon so we called and had everyone meet us at 4. Well we make it 1.5 hours away from the house we were moving to and the third tire blows. Now this tire takes another 4 hours till someone comes out to fix it. Finally get that tire fixed make it a couple miles down the road and the 4th and final tire blows. That takes another 3 hours. Don't even get the truck to the house till 11:30 pm. Now 2 months later they sent us the bills for all the tires and roadside services totaling $1900.

I reserved a 17' truck for September 28, 2013 to be picked up at 8 am. When I went to Bon Prix Auto Sales at 8 am, there was no truck there for me and the representative at Bon Prix told me that he may have a truck later, so I waited. He then called and told me that he would have a truck at 1 pm and I waited again. He called again to tell me at almost 12 pm that there was not going to be a truck. I called Budget's customer service dept and they told me that Budget would pay the difference of my rental from a competitor. I had to rent from U-Haul. The only truck that U-Haul had was a 14' truck which my stuff would not fit so I had to rent a 5 x 8 trailer to tow behind the truck. It also delayed the move because I didn't get the truck until 2 pm and lost some of my helpers.

I didn't finish packing the truck until Sunday evening and get home until Monday morning. Because I had to tow a trailer, I had to pay more for gas and it took me 12 hours to get home instead of 9 hours. This experience causes an unbelievable amount of stress for me and my boyfriend who came with me to help. Also was a financial burden in which I spent over $300 plus taxes, extra gas, and had to rent a hand dolly because I lost some of my help. I am requesting Budget to pay the difference in the truck and trailer rentals, hand dolly rental, and either discount my truck rental by $50 or pay for some of the $250 in gas I had to pay because I was told by their customer service that I would be discounted on the original rate. I asked to receive back from Budget: Difference in truck rental - $248.00, Difference in taxes -$ 21.70, Hand Dolly including taxes - $13.05, Discount or towards gas - $50.00; Total $332.75.

I really don't think this is unreasonable considering the extreme inconvenience, stress and financial burden this has put on me because your company is incapable of reserving and having a truck after I was told I would have one. Budget told me that they would only reimburse me the maximum of $250. That doesn't even cover the difference in price and taxes. They are very unprofessional!

Then...the truck. The truck broke down about 100 miles from Kansas City on I-70 W at mile marker 94 (It blew a spark plug we later found out). We called customer service and told them this. They said since it was a Sunday, it would take them an hour to get to us, which we understood. An hour and a half later, we got a call saying they couldn't find us. We repeated where we were. They asked us what state? We said 100 miles outside of Kansas City in Missouri. They had sent the tow truck to mile marker 94 in Kansas which is 94 miles from the Colorado border, and about 300 miles from Kansas City. We were standing on the highway in an emergency situation having only barely gotten the truck off the road when it broke down.

They tried to tell us it was our fault for not telling them we were in Missouri instead of Kansas. I feel like when we are standing there in an emergency situation we have never found ourselves in before and the person answering the phone (who takes these sort of calls everyday) is sitting calmly in an air-conditioned room hopefully with some sort of map or computer in front of them, they should be able to see that mile marker 94 in Kansas is nowhere near Kansas City. We had to be out of the truck in case it got hit as the left mirror was not completely out of the line of traffic but the truck couldn't be moved any further. It was 90 degrees outside and there was a 5-foot drop off on the right shoulder of the road. We sat there for 5 solid hours before they got a tow truck to us. To me, this is inexcusable even if it was a Sunday. We then had to wait 24 hours for the truck to be repaired. All I can say is that I don't think I will ever rent from them again, Car or truck.

So the young man Pep Boys made a phone call and handed it to me to talk to a representative or customer care rep from Budget. The lady was rude and argumentative. The Pep Boy rep was able to give me a discount and I was fine with that... but when I seen that they charged me 150 that was supposed to be only a hold and the actual truck rental of 86 and change I called them again. They told me that I'll receive the 150 in 3 to 5 business days. I told him I was very displeased about that. That I was not aware that it was charged my card twice. He said he was sorry for that but there's nothing they can do.

So the whole point of the story is they're making more reservations on vehicles than they have available for the consumer and then at the end trying to charge a different price than the one quoted over the phone. Plus the fact of the 150 dollar charge to the card plus the truck rental was never disclosed to me...

Budget will usually call you when there is a problem with your reservation and try to get you another vehicle. Sometimes that just isn't possible. One more thing, there is an inspection done on the truck called a walk around. Regardless of who you rent from, make sure all the preexisting damage is noted on the form before you sign. Likewise, start the motor, check the AC and look at the tires. Taking a few minutes to look it over may save you problems down the road.

Guess what happened? They called me back and said that there was a shop in Galion Ohio, but wait, they couldn't tell me IF that shop was open or IF they even HAD A TRUCK! The recommendation to me from your associate: Why don't you wait until Tuesday to move? What a novel idea! It's almost as if your company assumed I was moving balloons or something ridiculously LIGHT that I needed no help moving at all. I normally work 80 hour work weeks, and my family graciously scheduled time off to help me as well. All in vain.

Well now, let me see. I think the FIRST thing you could do would be to determine just how this happened. Maybe your trucks were stolen. Maybe your driver just decided, "Hey, I don't feel like going to work today." You know where I would start? I would begin by contacting the customers who had reservations and explaining just how this could happen. Preferably, BEFORE they arrive to pick up their truck.

Additionally, I was appalled that customer service suggested I drive another 30 minutes out of my way to check on another location THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A TRUCK, AND MAY NOT BE OPEN!!!!! Now, I'm not entirely sure just what kind of a company you are running here, but what I can assure you is that IF I WERE to rent from your company again (Which is not looking very promising) I would expect MORE than a free rental. I was at least hoping that you would make sure that a truck would be delivered as soon as possible to the Mansfield location. Ideally, I would have liked it delivered to my residence to make up for the time delay. Unfortunately, I am UNABLE TO MOVE AT ALL now because I can't take any more time off.

While in route back to the house, I realized on the paperwork that there was over a 93 dollar charge for insurance that we didn't want and called the Manager immediately. We were told that the extra insurance is mandatory. I mentioned I knew another truck rental company (that we didn't use because of location only) that a customer could opt out of extra Insurance and then I took the opportunity to mention the truck being filthy and said it calmly!

The following verbal abuse out of Lane’s mouth was absolutely the worst experience I have had with anyone in the service industry. This was his response to my questioning the charge on extra insurance: "Who do you think you are? I can tell you think you are better than what you are. What kind of marriage do you have that you wear the pants in the family. Obviously you two don't talk and your husband should have read the contract. You can’t understand that? You should be put in your place!" Lane then hung up!!! I was stunned.

So much so, I contacted Budget Corp, whom were professional courteous and apologized for the abuse from Crystal Clean and the Manager Lane. Budget Corp stated in fact you CAN opt out of extra insurance and gave us a refund on the 93 dollars. The other amount that was on there of 27 dollars 'extra fees' we didn't bother with. We just want people to know what kind of person Lane is and make a decision whether you want to give your business to this particular company!?

It apparently had been on the Budget lot for 3 weeks without being fixed. 4 hrs later a mechanic cleared the truck to drive. Fleetnet could not find us a load swap team so they recruited a batch of local mechanics with no loading experience to reload. They were certainly greenhorns... but with help from us managed to get the truck repacked. We had a delay of more than 25 hours and kept getting the runaround from all concerned... except one of the CRS. Advice: never, ever rent from Budget Trucks.... Use Penske instead.

I left early the next morning & noticed that the vehicle handled funny. Both of my front steering tires were bald. One had an 18" area where the fibers were showing through. I called Budget who took 4 hours to repair tires. Meanwhile, it was getting late & had about 6 hours left to drive. Budget agreed to pay for a hotel & then backed out because the truck should be "driveable". That is when I realized a headlight was out... another 2 hours to repair. At his point Budget cost me 8 hours of time. The next morning, I left the hotel & within an hour or so, I noticed that ants were crawling on me... Can't make this up. I finally get home & unload the truck. I fill it with gas & learned that I was charged $10.80 for dropping it off an hour after closing but 10 hours early. Budget offered to reimburse me about $170 of a total bill of $300. Why should I pay them a dime for them risking my life. The tire repair guy told me the tire would've blown any minute. I'll add pictures when I get home.

During the weekend, when I called corporate, they said they'd compensate me for my expenses and time. I paid my friends $100 each because we wasted most of the day. Plus I treated them to lunch. I called corporate today. Paula was the most pleasant representative I spoke with so far, but she made Budget's policy very clear. When you make a reservation, you're not reserving a truck! You're merely reserving the rate. There is no guarantee that you'll have a truck when you arrive. However if you don't show up to pick up a truck, they charge you $50. Paula said they don't guarantee a time and they don't guarantee availability. Over 2 days later, they still haven't found a truck. Ironically there were a dozen trucks at their dealer's location - but no one managing the store.

Paula told me Budget could not compensate me for losses due to the fact a truck was not available because they are a "self-serve" moving company. I asked if they would provide me with a free truck for a day ($30 value). She said, "That's not going to happen." At that point I asked if Budget is concerned with their online reputation and bad reviews. Paula was very pleasant. She said Budget doesn't care at all. She said, "Go ahead and say whatever you want about us. Have a nice day." I wished her well and got off the phone.

Budget has offices all over the world. I believe that each office is independently owned and it's a franchise but I haven't researched that. They really don't care and don't feel that consumers can affect their profits when they tell the world about how Budget operates. This is valuable information for potential Budget independent dealers and for people needing a moving truck. I recommend that you always rent the truck first and give your friends the heads up that you might have a truck. Once you have a truck then invite them over to help you move.

I spoke with 3 or 4 Budget employees at corporate so far. Paula seemed to be the most knowledgeable. Everyone else was clueless with an "I don't care" attitude. No one apologized. No one said they're sorry. No one said they understood. And no one cared - especially the company. The employees were just following company policy. Even on this site, as of today, with over 150 complaints and a 1 star rating, Budget hasn't responded to any of the complaints. They don't care.

After writing this review I called corporate one more time to confirm their correct address. I told them I was online writing reviews about their company and wanted to make sure I was complaining about the right company. She said, "Oh okay, a huh, no problem, thanks for calling." Here's Budget's corporate headquarters. She said they have offices in Canada too: Avis Budget Car Rental, LLC, 6 Sylvan Way, Parsippany, NJ 07054 U.S.

I went to the location and was told by an employee that they had no trucks. At this point, I lost it and told the manager that this was the most ridiculous situation ever and he apologized profusely. I told him I don't want an apology, I JUST WANT MY ** TRUCK!!! Why would he lie and say he had a truck when he didn't?! He said that everyone gets a reservation from Budget. You are just lucky if you get to your pickup location and there's an actual truck waiting for you! How can a business operate that way?! I wasted an entire weekend trying to find a truck and had to drive back without my belongings. Incidentally, I rented a truck from Penske and it was available the next day and they actually honor their reservations, and it was less expensive, too! Thank you, Penske!!! I had to inconvenience family members that took the time to not only pack my truck, but drive it down to NC for me. While I was driving back to NC, I saw several Penske trucks on the road but not a single Budget truck. Do they even have any???

After a few minutes, the woman said that she could call the person who had the truck to see when they'd have it back. Guess what??? They said they wouldn't have it back until 4!!!! I can't comprehend how this even happened to begin with! There was no apology whatsoever. She just acted like it wasn't her problem to deal with. I left in tears and they couldn't care less. I tried to complain on their site and got nowhere. A month later, however, when I got my credit card statement I noticed a $50 "No Show" charge!!!!!!! I called and got that taken care of and complained again, but still feel like nothing has come out of it. I would never recommend this company to anyone EVER! I don't understand how they can get away with stuff like this.

I called U-Haul and they actually guaranteed me a truck, granted a few days later, but cheaper than Budget because of my trouble. The best part was when I called Budget back to cancel my reservation, they actually tried to charge me a $50 cancellation fee!!! Seriously, they wanted me to pay for their inability to honor a deal that was made almost a month ago. If you are military, stay away from Budget and go with someone else.

Budget has implied either that I don't know how to drive (though I have already traveled over 1,000 miles) or that it's my load (heavy). It is not. The 16-foot truck isn't even all the way full and was packed by someone properly that used to work for Budget years ago, a professional! It doesn't even have a whole household of furniture. They are using every excuse not to actually give me another truck as they had promised earlier on in this crisis, and it's what they are supposed to do. I have been stuck in a hotel for 4 days now, 1300 miles away from my destination. They said they are almost done fixing the tire/wheel issue but have to give it to another vender (#4) repair person to do the front end alignment as #3 cannot???

Budget and their Roadside Assistance vender, FleetNet, are in denial that there is some power or transmission issue with the truck. They now say that vender #3 says there is no problem; so as far as they are concerned, there is no issue and won't address it. Yesterday, they told me they didn't even know that there was a power issue with it. This is despite me telling them, over and over again, to a new employee each time, that there is a power problem and despite sitting in a chair at vender #2's office while he told the Roadside Assistance that the truck would only go 20 miles per hour while I drove it to follow his mechanic to his shop.

In this instance, I had floored the gas pedal and it would not go faster than 20 miles an hour regardless of what gear I put it in. Budget is in denial that this is a problem. And as of this morning, day #4, Budget says there is no power or transmission issue. Budget refused to give me another truck though this is supposed to be their policy if one breaks down and it can't be repaired in 24 hours. At one point, Budget Roadside Assistance claimed there were no Budget trucks available or around for 1000 miles. However, I have been told by the hotel clerk, there is a little dealer in town. If he doesn't have a truck, there is another dealer 46 miles away in Ft. Collins which is a bigger dealer.

My brother called another dealer who says they could get me a truck, a bigger one in a day or two from a totally different Budget dealer. Budget, however, will not give me a new working truck. We, my child and our pets are stuck here in the middle of nowhere now 4 days and Budget is indifferent to this! Further, Budget has said that when vender #4 is done with the truck's front-end alignment, they feel the truck is completely repaired and to be returned to me. However, they have not had the power/transmission issue addressed and repaired, nor will they take it to the Ford dealer. The Ford dealer was suggested by both venders #1 and #2 to repair it.

At one point, Roadside Assistance, a couple of days ago, told me they were actually going to bring the truck to Ford dealer and repair shop (it's a Ford truck). However, Roadside had changed their minds. So when I called Ford to see the status of the truck in their repair shop, thinking it was there because I was told it was going there from vender #2, they said they didn't have it. So the truck and all our possessions were out there someplace that I had no clue. So again, being on hold numerous times, I finally found out they sent it to a tire guy, which is right for the tire issue but it doesn't address the power issues.

Now, I have tried to express my concern for the fact that they won't fix the power/transmission issue but to no avail. I have expressed concern for when the truck slows down to 20 miles per hour on a highway that the rest of traffic and lots of semi trucks are traveling at 70+ miles per hour behind me come upon the rental truck going so slow, they may not be able to stop or change lanes in time not to hit the truck and cause a deadly crash. However, Budget does not seem concerned about this and denies this will or could happen. Budget today kept saying the problem is rendered solved, even though it is not. They expect me to receive the truck back from the tire guys at some point and continue down the road without the truck being fixed properly. If I leave the hotel, there is not another town of any size for over 93 miles. I will be literally stuck in nowhere, helpless if it happens again.

Budget is not concerned over this nor that I may have to travel at 20 miles per hour at times for the next 1300 miles (!) or that my child and my life would be in danger when the truck randomly slows down to 20 miles an hour on a major interstate highway with a lot of traffic traveling in excess of 70+ miles per hour. I have tried; my brother has tried to call numerous times to Budget but not getting the repairs done. We are getting the runaround. Not until yesterday was Budget even paying our accommodations in the hotel. And at one point, we were hotel-less, truck-less and had nowhere to go.

Someone from corporate took care of our meal and hotel yesterday but said it's another dept. to take care of the truck issues. Today, I tried to get a hold of the same person, but the lower level staff would not transfer my call to her. I asked for corporate management and they refused to transfer my call to a supervisor. I was told they will have someone call me back. I was on hold for 46 minutes before I got the privilege of being told that they would not allow me to talk directly to a supervisor at this time. I have been put on hold dozens of times for anywhere from 15 minutes up to over an hour at a time, but have not gotten this resolved. As I stated earlier, we are now in day 4, stuck in a hotel 1300 miles from our destination, outside of a small town, not even in town, stranded! There is no light at the end of the tunnel at this point. Budget has abandoned us here. I was assured when I rented the truck that if I had any problems, Budget would solve them in 24 hours by replacing the truck if it couldn't be fixed in that time frame. This has not happened!!!!!

He told us the oil pan screw was stripped and therefore thought the truck might be able to be fixed so roadside assistance told us we had to wait with the truck while it was being looked at. The guy then told me to drive the truck and keep the windows down so the smoke wouldn't choke me and my son! I then started the truck up and found the truck's transmission wasn't working at all and the guy had to make a call AGAIN to tell his company that it must be the transmission now and that we would have to wait for him to find out what he was to do.

After several complaining phone calls later he was told he could tow the truck to our home because it was only 80 miles away. From beginning to end, it took 4 hours of phone calls, standing outside in the heat not to mention my two cats caged in for over 10 hours. The tow truck driver was being paid overtime for this tow and took as much time as he could for this tow. It took him nearly four hours to hook-up up our truck and travel 80 miles! What really surprises me is the lack of compassion and understanding I received from beginning to end with this experience. I have never rented a truck from Budget but I can tell you this - I NEVER will again and I will make sure to publish this experience in every social media website I can find and tell everyone I can as I am in the travel industry and come across many people that move. I will never refer them to your company.